Rag Radio: Author & Historian Philip Russell on Mexico’s National Crisis Under Peña Nieto

Philip Russell is an author, historian, and expert on Mexico who lives in Austin. On the show we discuss issues raised in Philip’s Rag Blog article, “Mexico’s Peña Nieto at midterm,” and his earlier report, “A Third of the Way: Peña Nieto’s first two years.”

In summary, Philip quotes noted journalist Elena Poniatowska: “The poor are even poorer; the levels of violence and insecurity have shot up. The immaculately coiffed president has remained unmoved and overwhelmed by the national crisis. The job has been too much for him.”

The Rag Blog‘s Alice Embree joins us on the show in discussion of issues related to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Latin America at large.

Philip Russell is the author of six books and is the editor of the Mexico Energy News. Philip’s sixth book, a textbook published by Routledge, is The Essential History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present, which traces the last 500 years of Mexican history, from the indigenous empires that were devastated by the Spanish conquest to the election of 2012. Philip’s writings on Mexico have appeared in sources ranging from the Austin Chronicle to The New York Times and he writes about Mexico and Latin America for The Rag Blog. This is Philip’ s fourth visit to Rag Radio.

Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The host and producer of Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer, is a prominent Austin-based activist and writer who was a pioneer of the ’60s underground press movement. The show’s engineer and co-producer is Tracey Schulz and the staff photographer is Roger Baker. The syndicated show is broadcast (and streamed) live Fridays, 2-3 p.m. (Central) on KOOP in Austin, and is later rebroadcast and streamed on WFTE-FM in Mt. Cobb and Scranton, PA., on Houston Pacifica’s KPFT HD-3 90.1-FM, and by KKRN, 88.5-FM in Round Mountain, CA — and is a featured podcast at VT. All Rag Radio podcasts can be found at the Internet Archive. Contact: ragradio@koop.org

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Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer

Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run, solar-powered community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The host and producer of Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer, is a prominent Austin-based activist and writer who was a pioneer of the ’60s underground press movement. Visit the Rag Radio Archives.

Contact:ragradio@koop.org

www.theragblog.com/rag-radio