coup

September 11 is not only an infamous date in the U.S.--in Chile, it marks the anniversary of the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. This year, 33 miners will spend that anniversary trapped underground, and Greg Grandin notes that Chile is seeing what amounts to the "Shock doctrine with a human face" under its current regime--deregulation leading to safety issues like that in the mine. Meanwhile, Mexico continues to see ever-escalating violence from drug cartels, and the U.S. State Department is now calling it an "insurgency." Grandin joins Laura in studio to talk Mexico, Chile, Brazil's upcoming elections, and more in Latin America.

Latin America has seen rapid changes over recent years, most significantly with the rise of left-leaning leaders who are willing to fight massive corporations and even stand up to the massive presence of the US in their countries. Director Oliver Stone decided to go to Venezuela to meet Chavez for himself, but when he got there, Chavez pointed out that the story was much bigger than just him. Stone and his screenwriter Tariq Ali met seven Latin American leaders and shot an amazing film, South of the Border, and they met with Laura this week in New York to talk about the film, the American left, Obama, the BP disaster, and more. The US Social Forum is still ongoing this week in Detroit, and activists young and old from across the country have gathered, each bringing his or her own causes to the mix.

Latin America is ahead of the curve when it comes to fighting resource-extracting corporations, says NYU professor Greg Grandin. While Obama makes nice with BP CEO Tony Hayward (and Glenn Beck claims that Obama is unfair to Hayward because he's white), Grandin notes, social movements across South and Central America have been fighting the companies that are after their resources for a while now--and dealing with the repercussions, often violent death squads, as well. Grandin joins us to keep us up to date on the coup in Honduras, the ongoing resource struggles in Latin America, and give us some insight on just why Glenn Beck has a "Tourettes-like" obsession with race. We also bring you footage from a new film that goes inside the Honduran coup from director Katia Lara, check out We Are Not Afraid: Inside the Coup in Honduras. Students graduating or looking for summer employment in 2010 are facing the worst labor market in at least a generation, according to Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute. Young people are often the last hired and the first fired, and state budget crises have seen cuts to programs from MetroCards for students in New York to after-school programs and academic counseling. To discuss the ongoing effects of youth unemployment, both now and on the futures of those affected, we talk to Shierholz and Sharmin Hossain, a youth organizer here in New York City. President Obama's announcement that BP would set aside $20 billion in a fund for victims of the Gulf spill is a welcome relief to communities where businesses and homes have been destroyed. The total amount needed to compensate, however, is being estimated at closer to $60 billion. Obama swears the 20 is not a cap -- I guess we'll see. More to the point: Since the president had no legal basis to demand the set aside, on what basis did he extract those billions?

Tea Party crowds held protests last week for tax day, but recent articles and polls have laid more blame for the anger at Obama at the feet of a deep-seated racial anxiety among certain sectors of Americans. "We have to embrace the fact that America is still going through a racial crisis," notes multimedia journalist and former NPR host Farai Chideya. Farai joins us in studio to talk about the "battle for the soul of America," and why the problem for some people isn't just their economic situation--it's that situation in relation to that of others. Barack Obama was able to win the presidency in part because of the strong support of self-identified "independent" voters. Yet the Tea Party movement draws many who also refer to themselves as independents. As the 2010 midterm elections approach, who's going to win over those supposed independents this time? And what about independent candidates for office? Joining us to discuss are Bill Hillsman, author of Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time, and Malia Lazu, executive director of The Gathering for Social Justice. The coup in Honduras is old news, but conflicts still endure in the Central American country. One of them has been portrayed by the media in Honduras as a fight between "terrorists," possibly foreign-supported, and the law-abiding government and military. The truth, as this video from The Real News Network shows, is a little different. Finally, the economy's getting better! Or is it? What's the real cost of the bailouts, anyway? Laura takes a look.