This investigative podcast series takes listeners across Latin America to the scenes of some of the region’s most devastating, revolutionary, and historic moments. In Season 1, independent journalist Michael Fox dives deep into the past of Central America, uncovering the history of U.S. intervention and its lingering effects in the region today.
Under the Shadow walks back in time, to tell the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.
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Episode 1 – The Beginning: Monroe and Migration
In this episode, we look back on the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the devastating impact on the region. The list of U.S. invasions, occupations, coups and sanctions is endless. Hundreds. From Mexico to Panama. The Caribbean. Colombia to the tip of Chile and Argentina. No country in Latin America has remained free from the shadow hanging over them. The shadow of the United States. The shadow of the Monroe Doctrine.
Episode 2 – Guatemala: United Fruit
Host Michael Fox looks at the outsized role of the U.S. banana corporation, United Fruit, in Central America. You literally can't talk about the history of Central America in the 20th Century without mentioning it. Fox goes in search of the legacy of the company today. He travels to the Guatemalan town of Tiquisate, which was built by the company. We dig into the past and the 1954 CIA coup, which overthrew the democratically elected president in the name of U.S. corporate interests.
Episode 3 – Guatemala: The Disappeared
Host Michael Fox visits a memorial for the disappeared on the outskirts of the Guatemalan town of San Juan Comalapa. He walks back in time to the 1980s, into the country’s genocide of Indigenous peoples, uncovering the overwhelming support from the United States and then President Ronald Reagan in the name of fighting the so-called “communist threat.”
Episode 4 – El Salvador: The Innocent Victims
Host Michael Fox heads to San Salvador, where he visits a memorial for the innocent victims and looks at the legacy of El Salvador's armed conflict today.
Episode 5 – El Salvador: Rebel Radio
Michael Fox visits the Museum of Word and Image, the home of the archives of Radio Venceremos. He hears from former members of the radio about the revolutionary project and the U.S. and Salvadoran military attempts to shut it down.
Michael Fox visits Honduran family members of the disappeared and the walls of the largest U.S. military base in Central America, uncovering the role of Honduras as a lynchpin in Cold War-era repression across the region.
Episode 7, Part I – 2009 Honduras: La Resistencia
Michael Fox dives into the tremendous resistance to the 2009 coup. He looks at the government of ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the push back he faced from Honduran elites and the United States.
Episode 7, Part II – Honduras 2009: Legacy of a Coup
Michael Fox looks at the fallout of the 2009 coup in Honduras, diving into the fraudulent U.S.-backed elections that ushered in a narco-dictatorship, as well as the resistance movement that, after years of struggle, ultimately did what it set out to do: remove the coup regime and return democracy to Honduras.
Episode 8 – Nicaragua: William Walker
Michael Fox retraces the steps of William Walker, the 19th century filibuster who invaded Nicaragua and attempted to annex and rule Central America. It's a story of U.S. imperialism that has lasting repercussions for Latin America, the United States, and the world.
Episode 9 – Nicaragua: Sandino
Michael Fox visits the birthplace of Nicaraguan liberator Augusto Sandino and speaks with historian Michel Gobat about Sandino’s life, the long U.S. occupation of Nicaragua, and how it set the scene for dictatorship and revolution.
Episode 10, Part I – 1980s Nicaragua: Revolution
Michael Fox walks back into 1980s Nicaragua to the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza and the beginning of both the Sandinista government and the U.S. response to it.
Episode 10, Part II – 1980s Nicaragua: Contra War
Michael Fox walks back into the 1980s, diving into the U.S. response to Nicaragua’s revolution and the international solidarity that pushed back against Washington’s intervention.
Episode 11 – Costa Rica: Peace & Democracy—Maybe
Michael Fox dives into tthe myth Costa Rica has created around the elimination of its military and how the United States did its utmost to encourage San José to do its bidding.
Michael Fox visits the Panama Canal Zone, once the United States’ most important asset in Latin America. During World War II, the United States installed as many as 100 military bases throughout Panama.
Episode 13 – Panama: U.S. Invasion
Michael Fox takes us to the working-class Panama City neighborhood of El Chorrillo, which received the brunt of the 1989 U.S. attack, and meets with Panamanians who have long fought for justice.
BONUS EPISODES
Update 1 – Arévalo, Presidente
Michael Fox returns to Guatemala, speaking to political scientist Jo-Marie Burt about the significance of President Bernardo Arévalo's inauguration.
Michael Fox returns to El Salvador for the presidential elections, which incumbent Nayib Bukele won in a landslide. He sits down for an in-depth conversation with Dartmouth assistant professor of Latin American Studies Jorge Cuéllar.
Update 3 – Narcodictator, Convicted
Michael Fox speaks to Karen Spring about the conviction of Honduran former president Juan Orlando Hernández for drug trafficking and the elephant in the New York courtroom: the role of the United States and Canada in propping up his narco-state.
Bonus 1 – Hollywood and Empire
Michael Fox speaks with British film director Alex Cox about his 1987 movie Walker, the filming process in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and the role of U.S. intervention and the film industry.
Bonus 2 – Chomsky on U.S. Intervention in Central America
Under the Shadow looks back on Chomsky’s 1983 lecture at the University of Colorado, as some of the worst aspects of the Reagan administration’s Cold War-era foreign policy ravaged Central America.
Bonus 3 – The Legacy of the Monroe Doctrine
Michael Fox speaks with historian Greg Grandin about the long shadow of U.S. imperialism in Latin America up until today, including U.S.-backed death squads, the Iran Contra scandal, Manifest Destiny, and so much more.