WEBVTT - 'Testing Grounds': How the U.S.-Mexico Border and Honduras Help Explain Immigration Enforcement Today 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:03.760 La Brega is back this season. 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.400 We're spending time with the people and symbols that represent 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:07.360 Puerto Rico. 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.719 We're proud borricoas and what does that mean? And we 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:12.160 are still terrified. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.919 We're telling stories about champions from a place worth fighting for, 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.120 stories that will inspire you no matter where you're from. 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:27.720 Come Wow, this is La Brega Campeones. Listen early and 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:33.200 ad free with Fubuto Plus. 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:41.480 The Trump administration has begun to pull most immigration officers 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.120 out of Minnesota after immense protest and backlash. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:52.159 There are under five hundred ICE agents remaining in Minnesota. 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.400 That's off of the three thousand surge that we saw here. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.760 Minnesota was one of the latest states to have hundreds 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.680 of ICE and Border Patrol agents descending onto its streets. 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.959 It was the largest immigration enforcement deployment in US history, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.080 and it reached a tipping point when two people were 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:18.840 shot dead by federal agents. There was Renee Macklin Good. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.840 Renee Good was a thirty seven year old US citizen 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.000 and mother of three who moved to Minnesota just last year. 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.240 And Alex Pretty. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.280 Alex Pretty was thirty seven years old. He worked as 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.640 an ICU nurse taking care of critically ill patients at 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.440 the Minneapolis VA Medical Sector. 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:44.319 And months before them, in Chicago, Silberio Dillegas Gonzalez was 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:45.960 also gunned down. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.160 Breaking news out of the Chicago area Homeland Security officialcy 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.680 and ICE operation left an enforcement officer severely injured and 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:54.480 the target of a traffic stop dead. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.200 The country has been grappling with these images border patrol 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:03.200 and ICE agents wreaking across major cities, But for a 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.160 lot of communities living along the US Mexico border, these 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:13.840 violent acts look pretty familiar. Jane Guerrero is a journalist, author, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.600 and contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Jane 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.360 was born and raised on the California Mexico border. She 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.600 recently wrote about how immigration enforcement and how the violation 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.320 of due process is now seeping away from the border 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:35.359 and trickling into other American cities. The violence is no 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.840 longer quietly happening in the shadows of the borderlands. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.080 So now it's happening on our streets. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:43.920 In a lot of ways, the border has been a 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:48.280 testing ground for all of this. Jane Guerrero also wrote 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.720 about something else recently that made us want to have 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.799 her back on our show something that has also been 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:59.040 happening in the shadows hundreds of miles away in Honduras. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.919 Do not want these startup cities because they do not 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.560 want to be displaced. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:07.560 Will actually build new cities in our country, These freedom cities, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:09.080 will reopen the frontier. 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.959 Gene argues that Onduras is a testing ground for something 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.200 that may very well soon come to the US. They're 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:27.160 known as startup cities. From Futuro Media, It's Latino USA. 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.919 I'm Mariano Josa. Today a conversation with journalist Jean Guerrero 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.640 how past border enforcement connect to the ice rates of today. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.760 Then we turn to the other testing ground, this time 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.880 in Onduras, where tech billionaires are trying to build their 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.200 own private societies. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:53.400 So let's get to it. 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.280 We start by talking about how the recent surge of 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.640 immigration enforcement across the US didn't come out of nowhere. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.520 A lot of people are shocked. You and I are 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:06.160 not shocked. 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.120 Exactly. It's been happening under Republican administrations. 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.720 It's now my privilege to sign the Homeland Security Act 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:15.040 of two thousand and two. 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.719 When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, you 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:20.200 have to take the children away. 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.080 It's been happening under Democratic administrations. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.919 President Clinton's decision in nineteen ninety four significantly increased the 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.960 border wall. The twenty two years that followed, at least 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.040 eighty three hundred people died and fifty five hundred disappeared 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:35.120 while trying to cross. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.480 CBS News has learned President Biden will issue an executive 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.760 order this week that would partially shut down asylum processing. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.479 And I think what's changed is just the brazenness with 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.320 which it's being done so visibly in the middle of 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.359 our cities and in our neighborhoods, whereas so much of 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:58.080 this violence was previously confined to remote areas of the 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.599 US Mexico border and to immigrant communities as well. But 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.320 the sort of overt to braws and violence that we're 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.839 seeing was something that border patrol was used to being 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.800 able to do with impunity. And this is why you've 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:14.200 seen thousands of people die at the US Mexico border 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.400 since the nineteen nineties when I was a high school student. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.120 It's actually what got me into immigration reporting in the 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.160 first place. At the time, I was shocked as a 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.320 teenager to discover what was happening just a few miles 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.480 away from where I was growing up, but it was 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.920 happening systemically in the shadows. It was happening at a 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.720 massive scale that we have not reckoned with until now 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:34.440 because it's in our faces. 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.960 So because of the fact that you grew up watching this, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.280 can you take us to some of those memories as 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:46.200 a young woman on the US Mexico border that kind 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:47.800 of shifted everything for you. 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.279 My strongest, most powerful memory, it's actually from my early 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.560 parts of my career, which is it actually threw me 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.320 back to when I was in high school because what 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.560 I was doing is I was walking the smuggling routes 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.960 at the US Mexico border in Arizona over the course 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.320 of multiple weekends with volunteers who go out there to 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:11.040 search for lost migrants and for the bodies of migrants 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.760 who've died in the desert to bring closure to their families. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.279 What I was seeing, which was literally human remains every 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.440 single time that when I went out there with those volunteers, 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.359 a mass grave at the US Mexico border. This is 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.560 something that I had first learned about when I was 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.240 in high school and I was reading Luis albertore As 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.280 The Devil's Highway where he talks about this group of 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:45.760 Mexican men who died trying to cross the newly militarized border. 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:52.080 I remember reading that extremely evocative, reported nonfiction account of 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.840 their experiences and being horrified, How is it possible that 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.840 our immigration policy could be designed to push people to 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.600 their deaths? And I was outraged, And later I was 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.440 just shocked to find that in my late twenties this 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.240 was still happening, and happening on a much more massive 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.200 and cruel scale. This was under the Obama administration, and 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.880 I remember I went out there because Trump was campaigning 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.360 on a promise to build his wall and to bring 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.200 about a much more brasingly cruel immigration policy, and I 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.680 remember thinking it cannot possibly get more cruel than it 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:33.360 already is. Like I was seeing human remains, skeletons everywhere. 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.680 We have been pushing people to their deaths as a 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.480 fundamental component of our immigration policy. With Stephen Miller and 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.320 Donald Trump are trying to do is there's a variety 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.360 of tactics, but one of them is to make their 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:54.840 lives so miserable here that they self deport. And one 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.440 of the ways that they're doing that is by introducing 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.920 a level of violence into our communities that we have 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.480 never seen before, at such a shocking open level. And 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.160 it's the same violence that caused those people to die 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.560 in the desert. 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:16.160 Physical and psychological violence. I think most recently of five 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.840 year old Liam Gonejo Ramos. You might have seen him 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.920 in his blue little bunny hat. He became an international 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.120 symbol of the trauma being inflicted on children across the 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:27.840 country today. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.240 Liam Goneho Ramos is a five year old pre kindergartener 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.520 from Minneapolis. He and his dad were walking back from 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.920 school when they were detained by immigration officers. 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.120 I mean, I wake up thinking about little Liam, but 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.880 there are so many little Liams, whether they're in Minnesota, 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.720 or they're in Chicago, or they're in LA I'm wondering 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.400 what do you think will happen with these children who 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.960 are being exposed to this. It wasn't new, but for 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:01.559 children in places like Minnesota, like OHI, this is in 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.120 fact going to change their experience as an American kid. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.040 It's incredibly traumatizing even just reading about what was happening 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.719 to me as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.520 a Puerto Rican woman, and being part of a family 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.720 of immigrants and people a mixed status family. It was 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.480 shocking to me to learn about the in humanity with 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.760 which the government was treating people like us simply because 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.640 of our language, simply because of the national origin of 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:34.280 our families. It created a sense of not belonging, of 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.320 not being wanted, and having to prove constantly my right 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:43.400 to exist. And I think it's really interesting what we're 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.200 seeing now because it seems that one of the reasons 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.920 people are starting to care is because they're realizing something 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.240 that the immigrant rights activists have been warning us for 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.680 a very long time about, which is that the attack 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.480 on immigrant rights is a trojan horse for an attack 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.120 on civil rights. The attacks on immigrant communities are being 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.720 used as a testing ground and as a way to 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.359 expand the erosion of our civil rights through the surveillance 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.720 economy and just slowly eroding our ability to be autonomous, 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.800 free citizens of this country. And people are trying to 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.040 realize it. Even if you are a citizen, you are 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:24.560 no longer safe. If you go out onto the street 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:29.680 and you stand up to protect your neighbors, you are 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.079 potentially going to be shot dead in the middle of 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.760 the street. That is what this is all about. It 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:41.000 is about power, impunity, the ability to operate without any 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:46.320 accountability whatsoever for governments that are in the pocket of 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:51.440 corporations that surveil and jail human beings for profit. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.480 When we come back, Jingeretro makes a direct connection between 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:03.040 the recent presidential elections and tech billionaires. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.800 You cannot understand the erosion of civil rights that we 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:08.920 are seeing in the United States and the unleashing of 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.400 federal agents on our communities without looking at what is 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:18.319 happening in Hunters, because it is the most blatant example 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.800 of Central America being used as a testing ground. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:24.040 Stay with us. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:43.280 Yes, it's Latino USA. I'm Maria Josa. I'm speaking with 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.120 journalist jan Guerrero. We're going to talk now about a 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.120 direct link between the newly elected right wing president of 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:57.120 Hoduras nasri As Fua, and the billionaire tech world. Gin 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.679 is going to tell us how all of this connects 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.880 to the States and what it could mean for all 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.640 of us. You recently wrote a piece for The New 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.000 York Times titled Trump is not a nationalist, He's something worse. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.360 And you say that what's happening in on Duras. Some 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.160 people are like, wait a second, we're just trying to 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.960 understand what's happening in our own country. You want us 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:22.280 to understand what's happening in Onduas in order to see 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:26.079 how this plays out here in the United States and 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:31.160 the repercussions. So make those connections for our listeners. 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.040 You cannot understand the erosion of civil rights that we 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.160 are seeing in the United States and the unleashing of 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.640 federal agents on our communities without looking at what is 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:46.559 happening in Hunduras, because it is the most blatant example 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:51.000 of Central America being used as a testing ground. So 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:55.319 the reason nadreyas Fuda is in power now in Hunduras 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.520 is because Donald Trump did everything that he could to 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:00.640 get him power. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.800 Nazri Asfulla, the conservative businessman backed by US President Donald Trump, 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.920 finally declared winner of the Honduran presidential vote. 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.080 Trump endorsed Nasiri as Fuda in November, saying on social 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.560 media that he was the best candidate for Honduras and 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.080 that the US could only work with him to fight 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:24.560 so called narco communists. Trump berated the other candidates. He 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.120 also threatened to cut off usaid if us Fuda did 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:32.520 not win, but that wasn't the only outside influence happening 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:33.640 in the country at the time. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.880 MS thirteen was going around posing as election observers and 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.680 telling Hundurance that if they didn't vote for the Trump 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.079 backed candidate that they would kill them and their entire families. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.080 MS thirteen literally drove voters to the polls to make 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.840 sure they cast a ballot the right way. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.920 And Trump's interest in the country continued. The following month. 0:13:55.040 --> 0:14:01.400 In December, Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras, Orlando Ernandez, 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.800 a move that shocked many people. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.160 Demand that I pardoned was if you could equate it 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.080 to us. He was treated like the Biden administration treated 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.840 a man named Trump. This was a man who was 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:15.480 persecuted very unfairly. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.600 In Nandez had been in a high security US prison 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.920 after being convicted of drug trafficking. He was sentenced to 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:25.200 forty five years. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:31.160 He pardoned the former president Juan or Landoornandez, who not 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.520 only was convicted of federal drug trafficking charges and his 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.040 role in one of the largest, most violent drug trafficking 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:42.360 conspiracies in the world. So somebody who sees this and 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:47.360 doesn't understand why is probably utterly shocked of course, because 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.480 Trump supposedly is the worst nightmare of drug cartels. Why 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.240 is he putting somebody or a party in power that 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.600 has historically overseen huge waves of migration from people who 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:00.840 were fleeing the Narco state. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:07.280 On January twenty seventh, nasri As Fuda officially became President 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.560 of Honduras when he was sworn into office. See both 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:16.080 of these Honduran leaders, as Fuda and Ernandez belonged to 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.160 the right wing party, and Jin Guerrero says this is 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.640 important because Trump and his allies wanted the Honduran Conservative 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.720 Party to win in order to allow tech billionaires to 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.280 build so called startup cities. 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.320 I mean you look at Roger Stone. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.560 Roger Stone as in the controversial political strategist who was 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:41.320 close to Trump. Remember the gray hair, flashy suit guy. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:43.920 Think Russian interference. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.600 He put out a blog within days of Trump coming 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.680 into power in twenty twenty five saying that Trump needed 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:56.280 to pardon at Nandez as a death blow to Shiamata Castor, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.960 the democratically elected progressive president of Honduras at the time, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:05.040 because she was against these startup cities that are backed 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.760 by Trump aligned tach billionaires who want to be able 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.800 to use Honduras to spread these neocolonial experiments where they 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.440 take over Honduran land in violation of Hunduran sovereignty, create 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.600 their own laws, and they want to be able to 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:21.560 do this with impunity. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.120 And one of the biggest and most controversial startup cities 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.000 is on a Honduran island. The city is named Prospera. 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.440 Prospera is building the fastest growing private city project in 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:40.720 the world, elevating human potential through a radically decentralized private 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.880 governance framework. Our platform is currently powering the next generation 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.440 prosperous city in the island of Roatan in Honduras, as 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.680 well as an emerging Prosperity hub on the Honduran mainland 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:52.440 with more location. 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.040 Shamatacasto had said, no, you guys cannot do that, and 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.160 the Hounduran Congress had voted to repeal the law that 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.840 allowed these startup cities to be created. And Rogers Stone 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.280 told Trump, you need to pardoner and none this so 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.919 that we can re empower the right wing party, so 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.240 that we can protect Prospera, so that we can save 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:18.440 prosper It's dizzying and it seems to contradict his other 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.800 medaling in Latin America, like him capturing Minnesota's President Nicolas 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.240 Maludo to bring him here on alleged federal drug trafficking charges. 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:28.960 Maludo responded that he is a man of God and 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.880 a prisoner of war, kidnapped by the American. 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.800 Military, threatening to do the same with the Colombian president. 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.040 Columbia is very sick to run by a sick man 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.680 who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.000 Threatening to bomb cartels in Mexico tonight. 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.080 Mexico's president is urging closer coordination with the US after 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.760 President Trump threatens land strikes on drug cartels that he 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:53.680 claims are running Mexico. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.000 It all seems contradictory, but actually there is a completely 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:01.879 coherent logic to it, and what that lodge is that 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:07.280 he is trying to empower a class of transnational elites 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:11.679 and expand their territorial power. All of these actions do that, 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.320 and in Hunters in particular, the real reasons for his 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:21.200 pardon are hidden in plain sight. It's these transnational elites 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.680 who want to operate across borders, who don't believe in 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.720 national sovereignty, who do not believe in borders, and it 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.720 shows that Trump is not a nationalist. He claims he's 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.280 all about patriotism, He's all about America first. But what 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.960 these policies show is that he is in league with 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:46.679 transnational elites who are actively working to accelerate the decline 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:48.960 of the nation state globally. 0:18:51.720 --> 0:19:23.080 We'll be right back, Yes, Hey, we're back. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.679 I'm going to wrap up my conversation with Jing Guerero 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.440 and we're going to talk more about Prospera and how 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.639 the fate of working class Americans is intertwined with those 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:37.680 in Onduras. So, Jing, you've laid out this concept of 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:43.320 these independent cities within the country of Onduras. I think 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.640 it might make some people stop for a second and say, 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.800 how does what happens in Hoduras, in these independent cities prospera. 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.320 How does that actually touch anybody that lives in the 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:54.080 United States. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.800 There's two main reasons that touches us, all aside from 0:19:57.840 --> 0:19:59.840 the fact that they are planning to bring these experiments here. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.479 I said this openly. Trump has openly said I'd love 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:04.840 to have freedom cities in the US. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.640 Will actually build new cities in our country. These freedom 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.120 cities will reopen the frontier and. 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:15.080 What they're doing is it's this hub for human enhancement 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:20.120 for the rich. So they are offering experimental gene therapies 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.800 for life extension that cost tens of thousands of dollars. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.800 I'm traveling to a remote island for an extreme medical 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.879 procedure that could change the future of humanity. Humans have 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.640 a one hundred and twenty year sailing and so far 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.439 no one can punch through it. Gene therapy might be 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.080 the answer. This is a journey in search of the 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:43.000 fountain of youth. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:48.240 They're offering cybernetic implants for what they call self sovereign cyborgs. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.960 I also recently got myself like an implant into my hands. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.680 Here you can program several things into it, like opening 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:55.600 Tesla car. 0:20:55.880 --> 0:21:00.240 It's part of this transhumanist movement that I personally see 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.240 as the successor to the nineteen hundreds eugenics movement in 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:08.960 the United States, where it's about breeding a superior race 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:14.479 of humans using technology. And what's interesting about it is 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.440 that it's only accessible to the rich because the people 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:22.879 who are advocating for transhumanism as it is unfolding in Prospera, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.240 and as it is unfolding in many other cities. They 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:31.359 believe that only certain people should have access, and they 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.240 believe that the world should be structured to allow for 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:39.159 humanity to reach what they call technological maturity at any cost. 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:45.840 So if that means destroying the earth, if that means 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.879 killing billions of human beings, they are fundamentally okay with that. 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.800 It's part of this movement that is gaining power, and 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.160 some of the most wealthy individuals are subscribers to this movement, 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.359 and Prospera is key to that movement because they were 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:03.800 creating this hub for human enhancement. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:13.560 There geneses that it's important to recognize that Prospero was 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:17.040 built in a special economic zone, a model that was 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.240 originally pioneered in Puerto Rico. 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:21.600 After World War Two, the. 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.959 US government and Puerto Rico's own leadership cited that the 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.000 island needed to modernize its economy, so they pitched this 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:33.040 grand Plan Industrialize, bring in US factories. The government gave 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.000 huge tax breaks and incentives to American companies to set 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:39.240 out factories on the island. Puerto Rican workers were promised 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.080 jobs and prosperity, but the factories often paid low wages. 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:45.480 The profits went right back to the mainland. 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.040 I'm Puerto Rican. My mother and all of my family 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:54.960 members left Puerto Rico because of the lack of economic opportunity, 0:22:55.000 --> 0:23:00.800 the widespread unemployment, and that all started because of the 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.680 entire island of Puerto Rico being transformed into a special 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:09.080 economic zone. So startup cities are using special economic zones 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:15.480 to proliferate. And they always say that these special economic 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.880 zones are going to create economic prosperity and all kinds 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:22.320 of opportunities for the domestic populations. But that is the 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.679 biggest lie, because you look at history, you look at 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.760 what happened in Puerto Rico. Most Puerto Ricans live outside 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:33.080 of Puerto Rico because of what they did there, and 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.240 so now they're trying to multiply this and ultimately bring 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:39.720 it here. It is not just about these other places. 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:43.000 The other places are just the start. In the same 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.280 way that immigrants were used in the United States to 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:51.760 erode the rule of law and civil rights for all citizens, 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.639 these regions are being used as a testing ground for 0:23:56.119 --> 0:24:01.840 similarly bringing that here. As I argue, I say, the 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:07.320 interest of working class native born Americans is not really 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:13.200 in conflict with the interests of indigenous communities across the Americas, 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:19.400 and if we're able to help people understand how their 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:23.800 faiths are intertwined, how these startup cities that are being 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:28.240 used to displace people in Latin America are eventually going 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:31.280 to come here. I think if people start to understand 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:35.000 those connections, then then there is a way out of 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:38.960 this nightmare. Like people talk about immigrants in a way 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:41.560 that makes other people think that it has nothing to 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:44.119 do with them, but it has everything to do with them. 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.359 As long as we allow the most vulnerable members of 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:52.679 our society to be rounded up, to be disappeared, we 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:56.560 are basically creating a situation where we are not going 0:24:56.600 --> 0:24:58.680 to have a country. We are not going to have rights, 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:02.000 we are not going to have law and order any 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:05.639 of us. People aren't seeing immigrants as equals. They're seeing 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:08.439 them as lesser, as as people who are suffering. And 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:12.560 it's like no, no, no, Our fates are deeply, deeply entwined, 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:15.680 and we are equals here and we need to fight 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:16.360 like equals. 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:24.840 Jan Guerrero contributed to The New York Times journalist and author, 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:26.960 Thank you so much for joining me again on Not 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:27.679 the New USA. 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:55.879 Thank you, Maria. 0:26:00.080 --> 0:26:03.600 This episode was produced by Rinaldo Leanos Junior. It was 0:26:03.720 --> 0:26:07.760 edited by our managing editor Fernando Echavari. It was mixed 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:11.399 by Stephanie Lebou and JJ Carubin. Fact checking for this 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:16.120 episode by Roxana Aguire. Nancy Truchuillo is our production manager. 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:21.520