NEWSLETTER 13. ON LATIN AMERICA

11 September 2025

Dear Patrons,

A few months ago, I delivered a lengthy talk in Sydney on the life of Major Ernesto Che Guevarra. While I am hoping this talk will be aired later this year on a local radio program, for now, if you are interested in my thoughts on Guevarra’s life, you can click on the following link. As I argued in New Matilda nearly 20 years ago — and continue to maintain — while I disagree with parts of Guevara’s vision (e.g. his defence of a one-party state), his influence on Latin American politics hardly ended with his execution in a Bolivian jungle in 1967. Even today, Colombia hosts a guerrilla movement inspired by his ideas.

A longer historical perspective is also needed to understand the turmoil now emanating from Washington under Trump’s second administration. As I recently noted in a public talk organised by the Blue Mountains Union Council in Katoomba, the bellicose jingoism used by Trump is reminiscent of the days of gunboat diplomacy used by president Roosevelt to intimidate Colombia in order to acquire the Panama Canal Zone. Now, with Panama leaving China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) due to U.S. pressure earlier this year, the White House has turned its attention to Venezuela as it recently dispatched one submarine and eight warships to the Caribbean in a supposed effort to fight the drug trade coming out of that South American country. In early August, the Trump administration offered a US$50 million reward for information that will lead to the arrest of Venezuela’s head of state Nicolás Maduro.

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NEWSLETTER 12. ON LATIN AMERICA

1 April 2025

Dear Patrons,

A large thank you to all the people that attended the Granville Centre screening in Sydney last March for my documentary 'Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire.' While the dates are still to be finalised, there is a good chance the film will be taken to Melbourne in July this year as well as Canberra. When this information is available, I will immediately provide it to you. Also, I'm happy to inform you that a version of the film with Spanish subtitles will also soon be available later this year.

Furthermore, regarding my own work, I am pleased to inform you that I have started filming for my next documentary titled 'Chile 73: Australia, the subimperial connection.' This documentary will look at the role Australia played in overthrowing the government of Dr. Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. If you are unaware of this aspect of history, I recommend you read my following article which was published in NACLA in 2021 as well as the following piece that was published in Crikey.com in 2023. 

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NEWSLETTER 11. ON LATIN AMERICA

17 February 2025

Dear Patrons,

I'm pleased to announce that another screening of my film with journalist Nicholas Ford, 'Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire,' will take place on Sunday March 2 at the Granville Centre in western Sydney. If you have not seen the documentary, and are close to this area, just click on the following link and book yourself a ticket. After the screening, Nicholas and I will be doing a 20 minutes Q&A with the audience. Also, there are now plans to take the film to Melbourne in May and hopefully Canberra as well. We are also working on having a Spanish version of the film so we can hopefully do some screenings overseas. Eventually, as previously stated, we will be placing the film on an online platform where you will be able to purchase it for a modest price.

Moving on to current political developments, the re-election of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States since January 20 has had negative ramifications for Latin America. Within one week of his return to the White House, Trump placed Cuba back on the list of states that sponsor terrorism. This move was completely expected, however, after the president of Colombia Gustavo Petro refused to accept two U.S. military planes with Colombian citizens in handcuffs who were allegedly illegal in the United States, the Trump administration threatened Colombia with a 25% increase on tariffs should Bogota continue to refuse their deportation. Petro’s objection was that illegal immigrants should not be treated like criminals. Trump, for his part, added that the tariffs would increase to 50% should Colombia not comply within a week of Washington’s request.

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NEWSLETTER 10. ON LATIN AMERICA

13 January 2025

Dear Patrons,

I hope you had a nice end of the year break and welcomed 2025 surrounded by family and friends.

After the premier in September 2024 at the NSW Teachers Federation of my documentary film with journalist Nicholas Ford titled ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire,’ Nic and I held two further screenings of the film that year. One screening took place at the Albion Peace Centre in Brisbane, where approximately 40 people attended, while the other was organised by the Australia Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS). Hosted again at the NSW Teachers Federation, the latter screening of our film was attended by close to 60 people. At the original premier, our film was viewed by an audience of approximately 100 people. All screenings have been followed by great Q&A sessions, in particular in Brisbane where I was taken aback by how polite and supportive of the film the audience was.  

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NEWSLETTER 9. ON LATIN AMERICA

5 September 2024

Dear Patrons,

The last few months have been very productive for me. In late April I wrote a lengthy article on the economic crisis in Cuba which has been a result of a tightening of economic sanctions on the island by the government of the United States. Interviewing several academics, a Cuban journalist and several citizens on the island, the reality of the crisis was made clear to me by voices such as Carlos Rivera, a 40-year-old health care worker at a public hospital in Havana. According to Rivera: 

"Today there is no end to the crisis, we don’t know where all this is going to end. We see that hospitals are being silenced, when health services are an important source of foreign currency for the country and are not even capable of at least improving the working conditions of those who work in that sector. The oil crisis, on the other hand, is hitting us hard. The issue of transport is very serious."

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NEWSLETTER 8. ON LATIN AMERICA

8 Macrh 2024

Dear Patrons,

Although it has been too long since I have written one of these newsletters on Latin America, as many of you would be aware, I have not stopped writing, giving interviews (see the following at Green & Red Podcast on Milei’s election in Argentina), working on Indestructible Podcast, and finally, the documentary 'Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire.' In March 2023 I published an article looking at the forces that overthrew the government of president Pedro Castillo in Peru. A mildly reformist administration, which had its mandate blocked from the very beginning, the writing was on the wall during the early days of Castillo's government that his administration would not last as it displeased both local elites and the incumbent president of the United States. As I wrote in my article published in Eureka Street:

Once in office, with his minister for foreign affairs Héctor Béjar, Castillo withdrew Peru from the Lima Group, a pro-US multilateral body established in 2017 to promote the overthrow of the Maduro administration in Venezuela.  After serving for just 19 days, Béjar — a respected left-wing intellectual and ex-guerrilla — was forced to resign after the Navy took offence to comments he made about the civil war Peru had endured during the 1980s.

The credibility of other ministers Castillo had appointed was then called into question. According to Francisco Dominguez, a senior lecturer at Middlesex University, that ‘Congress’s harassment [was] aimed at preventing Castillo’s government from even functioning can be verified with numbers: in the 495 days he lasted in office, Castillo was forced to appoint a total of 78 ministers.’

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NEWSLETTER 7. ON LATIN AMERICA

20 February 2023

Dear Patrons,

I would like to start by providing you with another update on the documentary journalist Nicholas Ford and I are making titled ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire.’ Unfortunately, due to other commitments, Nic is currently in South America for one month filming. This means the production of the documentary has once again been put temporarily on hold. Having said this, Nic and I recently paid a camera crew in Caracas to film the last interview for the film. This task was successfully completed while I am pleased to state that the overwhelming majority of the documentary is now completed and will hopefully be released within the next few months. For more information about this project, you can visit the following page on my personal website.

In other news, I recently gave a 40 minutes interview to the young activist Jamarr Jabari in New Haven, Connecticut. Jamarr host his own podcast where I talked about current political developments in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Also, on Peru, I recently interviewed Peoples Dispatch journalist and editor Zoe Alexandra for Alborada’s Indestructible Podcast which I host. This interview, which you can listen to here, was fascinating as Zoe has recently returned from Peru where she documented some of the pro-democracy protests after the progressive and democratically elected president Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a soft-U.S.-backed coup in December last year.

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NEWSLETTER 6. ON LATIN AMERICA

12 January 2023

Dear Patrons,

It has been a while since I have written a newsletter putting my thoughts on Latin America in writing. In the last few months, I have continued to work with journalist Nicolas Ford on my first documentary film ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire.’ With the film now almost 90 percent complete, we are aiming to release it in February this year with subtitles in both English and Spanish. Given your support for my work, all of the patrons for this newsletter will receive free access to the screening of the film once it is launched in Sydney. If you are unable to attend the screening in person, you will be provided access to the film online.

Moving on to Latin America, 2022 was a massive year in the region. In June, what appeared to once be a remote possibility occurred as Colombia saw its first democratically elected centre-left government. With Gustavo Petro winning for the Historic Pact coalition by crossing the 50 per cent share of votes needed to defeat entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernández, Colombia – one of the United States closest regional allies – has finally fallen to the Pink Tide. One week before the election, I spoke to Carlos Cruz Mosquera for Alborada’s Indestructible Podcast on some of the key issues at play during the presidential race, and what challenges a centre-left administration in Colombia could face given the long history of violence in the country.

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NEWSLETTER 5. ON LATIN AMERICA

16 June 2022

Dear Patrons,

Firstly, my apologies for the lack of communication. Unfortunately, for several weeks now I have been plagued with a terrible flu which has resulted in me being unable to fulfill most of my work commitments. While I have not tested positive for COVID-19, it is now over three weeks since I have been with this flu which I can’t appear to shake off. Hopefully, by next week, which will see my fourth visit to a medical practitioner, I will return to full health.

In better news I’m pleased to inform you that the campaign for the documentary film Nicholas Ford and I are making titled ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire’ has successfully ended on Kickstarter. Through community support we reached our very modest target of $AU7000 and are aiming to complete our film by August. For all the people that supported us, we are sincerely thankful and will inform you once the documentary is released.

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NEWSLETTER 4. ON LATIN AMERICA

31 March 2022

Dear Patrons,

As with last month, March has seen me continue to work on the documentary film ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire’, in particular,attempting to crowd fund the project. I’m happy to report that with 13 days left on our deadline we have managed to raise close to 50% of the project’s funds. For more information on this this documentary that I’m completing with the journalist Nicholas Ford, please visit the following Kickstarter page.

In my efforts to raise interest in this project, earlier this month I spoke at the NSW Teachers Federation and via Zoom at Melbourne’s Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET). Both engagements were highly productive and the latter talk can be viewed in its entirety here.

Moving on to other activities, I’m happy to report that the in-depth article I wrote for Arena, on the involvement of Australia’s intelligence organisation ASIS’ involvement in the overthrow of the democratically elected Allende government in Chile on September 11, 1973, has been published.

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NEWSLETTER 3. ON LATIN AMERICA

28 February 2022

Dear Patrons,

This month has been extremely busy. Firstly, the journalist Nicholas Ford and I have released the teaser for our upcoming documentary ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire’ along with a Kickstarter page in order to recover some of the money we have invested into this project from our own pockets. It has not been easy promoting this documentary but I’m glad to report we have been getting some support. Last week for example, I spoke on the making of the documentary and some of its key issues at LASNET, which is a Melbourne based Latin American solidarity network while also talking to 3ZZZ Radio in Spanish. If you can take the time to look at the above links, and think this documentary is worth supporting, please be so kind as to do so and share it with your friends.

Also, in collaboration with Nicholas, I’m pleased to refer you to the first article we have co-written on Honduras and the recent crisis the country’s new president Xiomara Castro Sarmiento Zelaya, from the Liberty and Refoundation Party, has survived. Noting the mass feminist movement that has backed her progressive presidency, Nicholas and I also look at the role the United States has played in supporting the previous two administration which have heavily been involved in the drug trade. This lengthy article is important because we document some of the massive hypocrisy of the United States so-called ‘war on drugs’, as well as the role the U.S played in violently overthrowing the progressive administration of Manuel Zelaya in 2009. In our view, the new Castro government is going to have to walk a very tight line between delivering to the constituency that voted for it, and the corrupt domestic elites and their backers Washington which will oppose progressive policy reforms.

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NEWSLETTER 2. ON LATIN AMERICA

27 January 2022

Dear Patrons,

As some of you may know, towards the end of November and most of December, I found myself in Venezuela making a documentary on the impact of U.S. economic sanctions. Having travelled to Venezuela on four other occasions, and even having lived there for six months several years ago, I was of the view I had enough experience and contacts to travel to Caracas and conduct a series of interviews with members of the government, the opposition, and experts that could shed light on the country’s politics.

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NEWSLETTER 1. ON LATIN AMERICA

6 November 2021

Dear Patrons,

Firstly, welcome to my new monthly newsletter. At the insistence of a few close friends, I have created my own Patreon account which will aim to bring you a summary of my latest work, as well as some of the key stories I think merit attention from Latin America. Occasionally, I will also be providing you with a ‘Blast from the Past’, which essentially will be an old article or interview of mine because I think it is relevant to a contemporary issue.

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