Pirate Wire Radio

In the United States, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, is now the most well-funded law enforcement organization on the planet. Its yearly budget exceeds the military spending of roughly 180 nations. That’s out of a total of 195 globally. And the agency, just one appendage of the US Department of Homeland Security, is a mere snapshot of the increasing power of the US pol...

Colombia's new ultra-right wing President, Abelardo de la Espriella, has said he is going to put all of Colombia’s armed groups in body-bags, but he is already suffering considerable setbacks. Both history and current dynamics suggest that there is no purely military solution to ongoing conflict in the country, and a hostile shut-down of an entire city, and indeed region this week illustrates exac...

Paraguay often doesn’t get a lot of attention outside of South America, but that’s been changing in recent years — especially for members of the global “New Right.” How did this idyllic country in the Southern Cone become a destination for anti-vaxers, trad caths, Brazilian nationalists and anti-migrant migrants from Europe and the United States? In part, its due to Paraguay’s history, including a...

The Malvinas! The Falklands! The Malvinas! The Falklands! Argentinian President Javier Milei has been a tear lately over Argentinian ownership of the islands, which have been a source of controversy and contention for decades. Meanwhile, US President Trump is hinting he may back Milei’s claims, and right-wing Israeli politicians have expressed unconditional support for his bid. But does all the no...

This week at Pirate Wire Radio, we speak with David Lingelbach and Valentina Rodríguez Guerra, from the Center of the Study of Oligarchs, about Oligarchy in the Americas. From the Char Clan, which helped put new Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella ahead in recent elections, to the history of Oligarchs and Oligarchies more broadly across the region. They are consolidating power across the...

We speak with Latin America studies fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, and longtime reporter, Will Freeman , about new revelations by the Washington Post and the New York Times that alleges the US is directly involved in a drone strike that killed 8 Ecuadorian fishermen. Will conducted a deep-dive on the subject for the New Yorker in June. We talk about what this new reporting means for a...

Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in this week and took power in Colombia. In many ways, his victory represents the end of Uribismo, the right-wing ideology named after and led by Alvaro Uribe. Despite their tepid support in the runoff, traditional power structures are turning away from de la Espriella, even if the electorate is not. He forged a new coalition of evangelicals, traditional Catholic...

Colombia holds elections Sunday May 31. Ultra-right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has a history of supporting paramilitary forces as well as legal intimidation of journalists who do not give him flattering coverage. Adriaan Anselma, executive editor of Colombia Reports , believes that the emerging front-runner for the right doesn’t want to only apply “iron fist” tactics against crime, he...

With the US about to enter a mining sector in Venezuela dominated by criminal armed groups, and in the heart of the Amazon Rain Forest, many experts are focused on profits. But mining in Latin America has long been fraught with problems, from ecological disaster to the empowerment of non-state actors. Some communities, long ignored by the states in which they live, say the benefits of foreign inve...

The US Drug Enforcement Agency leaked ongoing investigations into Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the press this week alleging ties to drug trafficking in the country. The accusations come two months before Presidential elections in Colombia, and from an administration that has routinely lied about narco-trafficking in Latin America to further its foreign policy goals. We speak with Adriaan A...

As the United States grapples with a surge of authoritarianism under Donald Trump, much of Europe is putting up new barriers to migrants. The two issues, xenophobia and rising autocracy, are deeply related. Our modern border system of cages and walls is deadly by design, and it empower autocrats who would crack down on civil society globally. “Open Borders” advocates are often dismissed as idealis...

With US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying the US will resume attacks on Venezuela if the government doesn’t cooperate with US security concerns. Chief among those concerns are Colombian armed groups who smuggle cocaine into Venezuela. To really dig into the data about exactly how that works, and what ongoing conflict in the borderlands might look like with US involvement, we sat down with Adr...

The Pirate Wire Radio podcast series is usually for paid subscribers, but this week we’re making it available for all! Please consider taking out a paid subscription and support indie journalism. We have plans that start at just $5/month We sat down with two old friends and Latin America experts to talk about Trump’s drug war in the Caribbean. We talk about false claims, opaque processes, the ‘War...

Paid subscribers get early access to the Pirate Wire Radio podcast series! This episode will become available to all subscribers in five days. Bolivia’s left-wing indigenous-led party, MAS, has governed Bolivia for almost two decades. However, infighting between former President Evo Morales and current President Arce, as well as mismanagement and economic crisis, have destroyed any chance of a lef...

Paid subscribers get early access to the Pirate Wire Radio podcast series! This episode will become available to all subscribers in five days. In this episode of Pirate Wire Radio, we speak with Mat Youkee, a journalist in Panama City, and a regular contributor at the Guardian and the Economist, about massive protests in Panama. He describes the reasons behind growing anti-U.S and anti-Trump senti...

Paid subscribers get early access to the Pirate Wire Radio podcast series! This episode will become available to all subscribers in five days. Mass deportation programs in the United States have dominated international media headlines, but all the while a much smaller country in the Americas has been reaching much higher numbers than the Trump administration. The Dominican Republic, a country 30 t...

The attack on Colombia’s Palace of Justice resulted in one of the country’s most famous massacres. For decades, the public largely believed government claims that it was M-19 Guerillas who killed hostages and nearly half of the Supreme Court. But new evidence and testimony have come to light that it was actually military intelligence who murdered the majority of both, even torturing some as part o...

This week’s news feature is a preview of our upcoming podcast season with Adriaan Alsema from Colombia Reports . Colombian police intelligence likely purchased Israeli software Pegasus during the country’s national strike in 2021, during which police killed over 60 protesters. The sale was never declared in Colombia, and although the NSO Group, who created Pegasus, broke no laws in Israel, they de...

Protests over U.S. funding of the Israeli war in Gaza, originally organized at Columbia University in New York City, have spread to more than 40 campuses. Police crackdowns, including the deployment of the National Guard against students in Texas, have inspired outrage, and likely helped fuel support for a movement that seems for the moment to be spreading across the country. But media bias in pro...

Welcome back Piratas! Yesterday the Venezuelan government banned presidential primary opposition candidate María Corina Machado from office for 15 years, sparking international condemnation. Recent polls show right-wing Machado’s popularity on the rise— she is currently leads a crowded field of 14 candidates vying to challenge socialist President Nicolás Maduro in the 2024 election. The latest sur...

Last week a German tourism company that offers $4000 USD tours of the Darien Gap —the most dangerous migration corridor in the Americas— elicited a firestorm of criticism. Some journalists erroneously claimed that the company, which provides guides and helicopter evac in case of a medical emergency, was profiting from and exploiting migration, which has expanded radically in recent years and has c...

Avast, me hearties!  I don’t know about you but we’re greeting the weekend like a marooned man greets a passing ship. Before we get onto the news, there’s a brief update. For the past three months, we’ve been sending you a weekly podcast episode on everything from crypto-ponzi schemes in Argentina to migrants at the US-Mexico border. But creating high-quality reported audio journalism is complex a...

News ahoy!  It’s Saturday, (yeah, we're a little late, s orry, Piratas ) and even though most stories reach the Good Ship Capybara via a message in a bottle, we’ve got plenty of updates for you today. Last Sunday, Colombians voted in a second round of presidential elections that saw leftist ex-mayor of Bogotá and former M19 militant, Gustavo Petro, elected to the top job. His vice president is the...

Como siempre, deslizáte para abajo para leer todo en castellano. Hola Piratas! This week was an especially chaotic one in Latin America. Joshua and Daniela are buried under a mountain of electioneering pamphlets and deadlines as they scramble to cover the end of a fractious and dramatic presidential race in Colombia. Amy and Paulo, recently recovered from the plague, have resumed full-time duties...

Shiver me timbers, it’s Friday! Today, we’re marooned. Spiritually, professionally, and piratically. It’s been one of those weeks. Our podcast this week is a deep dive into who the next possible president of Colombia may be. Rodolfo Hernandez pulled off an upset in the first round and may be headed to the highest office in the land. We spoke with three experts about what that could mean for the fu...