January 10 - The Capture of the Fugitive Drug Lord in Mexico; A Mexico City-Based Journalist Who Has Witnessed Murder and Mayhem Caused by "El Chapo" Guzman; Republican Presidential Candidates Address Poverty in America

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the capture of the billionaire fugitive drug lord in Mexico “El Chapo” Guzman who broke out of a maximum security prison in Mexico six months ago and was captured in a shootout by Mexican Marines who apparently were led to the fugitive by a Mexican soap opera star Kate Del Castillo and the American movie actor Sean Penn. We will go to Mexico City and first speak with veteran reporter Dudley Althaus, a Wall Street Journal correspondent for Mexico and Central America. He joins us to discuss the redemption of Mexico’s president who was humiliated by “El Chapo’s” second escape from prison while Pena Nieto was on a lavish state visit to France.  

Part 2

Then we hear from Mexico City based Ioan Grillo who covers Latin America for Time magazine, CNN, the Associated Press and the PBS NewsHour. He is the author of “El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency” and his latest book is “Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America”. We will look into the celebrity aspect of the capture of the drug lord who apparently was smitten by the soap opera star and wanted his story on the silver screen, and the extent to which the grim nature of the mayhem that the drug lord and the war on drugs in general have brought Mexico to the brink of being a failed state has been overlooked in the celebrations over the capture of the fugitive drug lord.

Part 3

Then finally, following a gathering of the all the Republican presidential candidates with the exception of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, in South Carolina over the weekend to talk about poverty in America, we speak with Sue Berkowitz. She is the director of South Carolina’s Appleseed Legal Justice Center and we discuss the gulf between the proposals made by the candidates to address poverty among the unemployed and working Americans and the reality on the ground that she deals with.