Shadows of Latin America

In this episode, we trace the story of the mineral wealth that helped sustain the Spanish Empire while also slowly deforming it. From conquest to the transatlantic routes that carried precious metals to Europe, the episode reveals how gold, and also silver, fueled a system built on extraction, violence, forced labor, bureaucracy, ambition, and dependency. More than a story of prosperity, this is t...

The fall of Tenochtitlan was not an inevitable victory or a simple story of Spaniards against Mexica. In this episode, we reconstruct the siege of one of Mesoamerica’s most powerful cities and the forces that brought it down: Indigenous alliances, imperial ambition, political rivalries, disease, hunger, and resistance. From the splendor of the lake city to the capture of Cuauhtémoc in...

Palmares was far more than a refuge for people escaping slavery. In this episode, we reconstruct the story of a network of communities built in colonial Brazil, amid the sugar economy and the violence of the Atlantic slave system. From Serra da Barriga to Ganga Zumba, the 1678 negotiations, Zumbi’s rise, and the destruction of Macaco in 1694, the narrative presents Palmares as a society, a p...

The lost treasure of the Incas is not just a legend about hidden gold. In this episode, we reconstruct Atahualpa’s capture in Cajamarca, the ransom of gold and silver that failed to save him, and the looting that followed the collapse of Inca power. Between history, memory, and rumor, the story explores missing treasure shipments, hidden riches, and legends tied to Rumiñahui and the L...

The War of the Pacific redrew the map of South America and left wounds that still endure. In this episode, we reconstruct the conflict between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru through its economic and territorial roots: nitrate, guano, the Atacama Desert, fragile treaties, and the Chilean occupation of Antofagasta in 1879. The narrative follows the naval and land campaigns, the fall of Lima, the treaties...

The Panama Canal transformed global trade, but it also left a deep wound in Latin American sovereignty. In this episode, we reconstruct the story behind the route that joined the Atlantic and Pacific: the failed French attempt, U.S. pressure, Panama’s separation from Colombia in 1903, the Hay Bunau Varilla Treaty, construction between 1904 and 1914, and the human cost paid by thousands of mi...

Operation Condor was a network of repression coordinated by South American dictatorships during the Cold War. In this episode, we reconstruct how intelligence services from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil shared information, monitored exiles, and carried out persecution across borders. From the 1975 Santiago meeting to the Archives of Terror discovered in Paraguay in 1992,...

Simón Bolívar did not only seek to free territories from Spanish rule. He imagined a united America, strong enough to resist new forms of power. In this episode, we reconstruct the dream and failure of that continental vision, from the wars of independence to Gran Colombia, the Congress of Panama, disputes with Santander, accusations of authoritarianism, and the project’s final...

Cuba was a small island with enormous geopolitical weight. In this episode, we reconstruct how it moved from deep U.S. influence to becoming a global symbol of defiance after the 1959 Revolution. From Batista, Moncada, the Granma, and the Sierra Maestra to the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis, the embargo, and the Cuban exile, the story reveals a revolution shaped by sovereignty, hope, political co...

During Argentina’s last dictatorship, state terror did not only disappear people. It also stole identities. In this episode, we reconstruct the story of appropriated babies and children, pregnant women held in captivity, births inside clandestine detention centers, networks of complicity, and families who raised children under false names. The narrative follows the relentless search led by t...