Dateline Latin America: Teargas and Tango

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 to ensure that such horror is never again allowed to thrive - Nunca Mas! Never Again! It's a sentiment that rings even more strongly with a government in office that questions the extent of the horror and even tries to justify it. Joe and Daniel have, over the years, interviewed survivors, witnesses and torturers, visited the detention centres and attended the trials. They marched on 24 March - the day fifty years on from when the military took office and here discuss what that date means to them.

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 countries deemed to have strayed too far from US influence - Guatemala, Haiti, Chile, Grenada and Panama among them. Cuba next? Once the US has finished in Iran? Joe and Daniel discuss Washington's meddling in Latin America while the drones cause destruction on the other side of the world.

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 Ferguson. While Joe reported on the death of Ferguson's mother, Susan, in Argentina in 1998 where she'd married into the elite polo-playing crowd. As they used to say the last time a major player in the British royal family was arrested (in 1646) - Off With His Head!

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've spent decades reporting from, correcting bosses who thought Uruguay was in Central America and Lima was the capital of Bolivia.

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-indigenous, anti-pretty much everything except big business, mining, foreign investors, flags and uniforms. His dad was a German nazi. His brother served in the government of dictator, Augusto Pinochet. He takes office on 11 March. Joe and Daniel look forward to what Chile and Latin America can expect from Mr Kast and back because, as we know, everything happens for a reason.

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-existent. Angry words, for sure. What else can Latin American leaders do, apart from increase their personal guard, as threatened Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, has done?What now? How do millions of Venezuelans who have gone into exile react? Joe and Daniel, who have amassed a fair few air-miles visiting Venezuela over the years, ponder the imponderable. WTF is going on in Venezuela?!!

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 Paulo - obviously! Buen provecho! Bom proveito!

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 after commiting their heinous crimes. But justice finally caught up with them. And what about Peru?! Nearly every president who served there in the past forty years has ended up behind bars. Joe and Daniel discuss who was guilty but got away with it, who wasn't but ended up in prison anyway and whether justice for Latin American leaders is ever fair...

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 it has done, on and off, since 1823 when it published the Monroe Doctrine which stated that the US could do what it wanted in the region. Who's going to stop them? Joe and Daniel discuss how it's done that, continues to do that, using carrots, sticks, burgers and bullets.

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 for much of that time by Bolivia's first indigenous leader, Evo Morales. Morales is currently holed up in the coca leaf Chapare region avoiding arrest on charges of statutory rape - sex with a 15-year-old girl. He denies the charge, saying it's politically motivated. His party was practically wiped out in the first round of voting - its candidate receiving just 3% of the vote, its share of seats in Congress reduced from more than 70 to just two. So after all the gains made by MAS - a voice for indigenous people, nationalisation of oil and gas companies, massive investment in infrastructure - will they disappear from the political landscape? And what did they do wrong for the Bolivian electorate to desert them in such numbers? Joe and Daniel, who have both visited Bolivia many times over the years, discuss all of that, plus mountain-climbing cholitas, Nazi torturers, coca leaves and llamas. Oh no! They forgot the llamas.

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 the first one - in Rio in 1992. Daniel has covered subsequent ones in Cancun, Durban and Doha. Overblown, environment-damaging talking shops or our best and last chance to save the planet? You decide...

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 support of the military - at least not enough of them. Coups and coup attempts are nothing new in Latin America. Bolivia alone has had 190, the most recent only last year. And many leaders, although democratically elected, seem to have scant regard for democratic institutions once they come to power. Ortega in Nicaragua, Bukele in El Salvador and Milei in Argentina to name just some. Joe and Daniel discuss why the region is so prone to coup attempts and whether democracy is under threat.

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 informed, he fired the whistleblower. But that's not all. Medicines meant to relieve pain have been found to be contaminated and have killed nearly 100 patients at hospitals around Argentina. The government blamed the opposition, the hospitals tried to cover things up. Scandal after scandal...how will they affect mid-term elections coming up? Joe and Daniel discuss:

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 lives. Joe and Daniel present Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Abdala 'El Loco' Bucaram in Ecuador (pictured, with moustache) and Javier Milei in Argentina as exhibits a, b and c.

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 bullying by its northern neighbour. Joe and Daniel discuss what the 's going on... 

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 they've known over the years are growing ever further apart. 

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 the attack in more depth than most. He shares some of his findings here. 

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? Joe and Daniel have strong views on the matter. 

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.