Dateline Latin America: Teargas and Tango

Argentina has won the World Cup three times: in 1978 when hosting it under a brutal military government amidst some dubious dealings to reach the final, 1986 in Mexico with the help of Maradona and God and last time out in Qatar guided by Leo Messi. They've also lost a couple of finals and always go into every tournament among the firm favourites supported by some of the most passionate fans i...

There are two viruses threatening Latin America and beyond. The first is Hantavirus (Andean strain) which it's thought was picked up by European tourists who boarded a Dutch cruise ship in April in the far southern Argentinian city of Ushuaia. It is usually spread from rodent to human. The fear now is that humans are passing it to one another. The World Heath Organisation is dealing with it si...

The attack last week on Donald Trump was merely the latest in a series of assassination attempts against American presidents. Joe and Daniel have covered a fair few presidential events in their time - from Bush to Obama and Chavez to Castro - and been subject to the security measures that accompany them. They compare Trump's security with that on the events they've covered. And whether, as...

The people of Hungary have had enough of the malicious, regressive, oppresive policies of their president of sixteen years, Viktor Orban. He was one of the first of the world's anti-women, anti-abortion, anti-migrant, anti-LGBTQ+, anti pretty much anything deemed to be progressive leaders of recent times. In his wake followed Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei, Jose Antonio Kast and mo...

The military was in office in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, kidnapping, torturing and killing an estimated 30,000 of its own people. Thousands more fled into exile. Argentina is still a country coming to terms with this dark history: to find out what happened, who was responsible, where the bodies are buried. The survivors and the families of the victims want truth and justice. They also want t...

The Monroe Doctrine implemented in 1823 by the then president of the United States, James Monroe, was designed to tell the European colonial powers to get out of their backyard. Make no mistake - Latin America was Uncle Sam's. Now dubbed the Donroe Doctrine after the current US president, their military operation in Venezuela in January was just the latest in a series of incursions in countrie...

How the mighty have fallen! And can we dare hope that other arrogant, entitled and corrupt world leaders might follow in their wake? Daniel and Joe give their informed views on the latest fallout from the Epstein scandal based on their tenuous journalistic connections with the disgraced former royals: Daniel, while on his first newspaper back in 1986, covered the wedding of the ex-prince to Sarah...

News coverage as we knew it is shrinking, the latest drastic job cuts at the Washington Post just the latest whittling away of a service vital to the health of democracy. And this when smaller, lighter and more affordable technology should be taking us to more and more remote places than ever before. Joe and Daniel discuss the impact of these cuts on coverage of Latin America - a region they'v...

Jose Antonio Kast is the president elect of Chile and takes over in March. He's already told foreigners they'd better be gone before he builts a moat - yes, a moat! - on along their border with Bolivia. Will it be guarded by dragons? He's the latest in a string of Trump disciples to be elected across Latin America...libertarian, anti-foreigner, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-trade union, anti-indig...

Several days later, it's still hard to believe it really happened - a US military raid on Caracas to arrest the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Celia Flores. And Donald Trump got away with it - for now. OK, so he broke international law, has been condemned both at home and abroad and doesn't appear to know what to do next. But the response has been weak to non-existen...

Pickled cow's tongue, sponge cake with tuna: just two of Argentina's Christmas delicacies. Joe and Daniel are not fans. But there's plenty of alternatives to delight the palate in Argentina and the rest of Latin America. Is Argentine ice-cream the best in the world? Is Peruvian food the best in the world? Is Mexican food too spicy? And where might you find the best sushi anywhere? Sao...

Donald Trump has just pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who a US court had sentenced to forty-five years in jail for drug smuggling and money laundering. He got away with it. So did previous Latin American despots, Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, and Augusto Pinochet of Chile. Argentine dictators thought they had too - walked the streets for nearly twenty years aft...

US military forces are gathering near Venezuela, threatening President Nicolas Maduro and blowing boats out of the water crewed by people who may, or may not, be drug traffickers. Meanwhile, President Trump offered the Argentine president, Javier Milei, a $40billion lifeline if he did well in midterm elections - which he did. Washington is asserting itself in Latin America - its backyard. But then...

Moderate right-winger, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, will be the new president of Bolivia after elections last Sunday. He's the son of a former president and he beat another former president, a more extreme right-winger, Tuto Quiroga, in the second and conclusive round of voting. His victory marks the end to almost twenty years in office by the left of centre Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, led f...

Joe has been to Brazil's Pantanal wetlands where he frolicked with jaguars. There's no-where better in the world than Brazil to enjoy nature - and to witness humans destroying it in the name of profit. Which is why the UN's annual COP climate change conference, this year number 30, will be worth watching since it's being held in the northern Brazilian city of Belem. Joe reported on...

Joe and Daniel have eaten their way around Latin America - munching meat in Argentina, chomping in churrascarias in Brazil and tucking away tortillas in Mexico. They've done fine dining in Lima, street food in Bolivia and found gastronomic greatness in the most unexpected places. Tuck in for a culinary tour of Latin America.

The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for planning a coup. He was trying to prevent his left-wing rival, Lula, who'd defeated him in elections a few weeks earlier, from taking office. Thousands ransacked government buildings in Brasilia but Bolsonaro and his backers aborted the coup attempt because it became apparent it didn't have the sup...

Corruption is nothing new in Latin American politics - taking bribes, dipping into state funds, misusing government facilities and more. But rarely is a country's most vulnerable held in such open contempt - in Argentina's case, those suffering from disabilities. President Milei's sister and closest aide has been accused of skimming 3% from funds meant for the disabled. And when the president was...

Latin America has had more than its fair share of eccentric dictators and democratically elected but dictatorial presidents: Pinochet, Stroessner, the Duvaliers, Batista and Trujillo to name just a few. Brutal, certainly. Often corrupted by power. Many demonstrating increasingly weird and sometimes disturbing behaviour the longer they're in power. No-where is that more apparent than in their sex l...

President Donald Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on many Brazilian goods because he doesn't like what he calls a political witch-hunt against his one-time ally, the right-wing former president, Jair Bolsonaro. He's being tried for alleged involvement in a coup attempt on 8 January 2023, similar to the one that took place in Washington DC a year earlier. Brazil is standing up to what it calls...

Argentina has always been a country divided - between Peronists and those who hate the Peronists, between Buenos Aires and the provinces, between Boca Juniors and River Plate fans, but especially between rich and poor. Now, with the hard-line, libertarian economic policies of President Javier Milei beginning to bite, that divide is starker than ever. Joe and Daniel discuss how the two Argentinas t...

It's been 31 years since the bomb attack on the AMIA, the Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires, that killed 85 people and injured more than 300. Yet after all this time, we're still no closer to knowing who was responsible. It's been a case bogged down in corruption, ineptitude, accusations and counter-accusations. Joe Goldman was one of the first on the scene and has investigated th...

The former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is serving a six-year sentence for fraud and has been banned from holding public office for life. Many however, believe she's the victim of a political witchhunt, that the current  president, Javier Milei, simply wants the most powerful opposition figure in the country out of the way. Has he succeeded or is he creating a martyr...

Being a journalist these days is dangerous. More than 120 were killed last year, many of them in Gaza. But we've become targets like never before and there are risks everywhere. Joe and Daniel have had their share of incidents over the years - in Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela and closer to home, just a few weeks ago in Argentina. 

World Cup holders and home to two of the greatest football players the world has ever seen, what makes Argentina so crazy about the game? A game they will never remind you was introduced to them by the British. New club champions will be named this Sunday, either the once mighty Huracan or the brown-shirted guys with a squid as their mascot, Platense. Seems like a good time for Daniel and Joe to t...