August 31 - Trump's Photo-Op in a Country That Loathes Him; Why Did Mexico's President Go Out of His Way to Help Trump?; The Impeachment of Brazil's Former President

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the surprise visit by Donald Trump to Mexico City at the invitation of President Pena Nieto who provided presidential candidate Trump with a generous photo opportunity at which Trump, who had previously labelled Mexicans as “rapists” and “murderers”, was effusive in his praise for Mexicans for whom he claimed he “has a great feeling…They are amazing…beyond reproach, spectacular people”. First the director of the Mexico-based Americas program of the Center for International Policy, Laura Carlsen, joins us from Mexico City to describe the widespread loathing of Donald Trump among Mexicans who are mystified why their president invited such a hateful and divisive figure who was able to burnish his non-existent foreign policy credentials ahead of a speech tonight in Arizona on immigration, without being challenged by Pena Nieto about building a wall between the two countries that Mexico is expected to pay for.

Part 2

Then we examine further the possible reasons why Mexico’s president went out of his way to help Trump who has done nothing but insult his country. Dr. John Mill Ackerman, an author as well as professor at the Institute of Legal Research of the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico joins us to discuss the compatibility that Trump and Pena Nieto share in their pro-corporate, pro-business outlook sharing an elitist contempt for everyone but the rich and powerful with a complete disregard for the poor and working class. We look into how the mainstream media in Mexico, in particular Televisa, act as a propaganda organ for the PRI Party and how in spite of endless talk that reform has taken place in Mexico since the end of seven decades of one-party rule, little has really changed with the PRI now back in power.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center who was previously the Washington correspondent for Estado de Sao Paulo, a leading Brazilian daily newspaper. He joins us to discuss the overwhelming vote in the Brazilian Senate of 61 to 20 to impeach the former president Dilma Rousseff on flimsy grounds and the connection that the political crisis in Brazil has to an economy in the depths of an historic recession which has led to an unemployment rate of 11.6% that has nearly 12 million people out of work. Added to which, the new government of the extremely unpopular President Michel Temer is now calling for deep cuts in social spending.