On this episode of THE MODERN MEXICO PODCAST host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Noah Hurowitz, author of the book EL CHAPO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST INFAMOUS DRUG LORD. "El Chapo could operate without any true fear of being captured. This undercuts the way El Chapo is seen in popular media. He [is] often likened to outlaw figures [such as] Robin Hood. But, I don’t know how accurate that is because the role of someone like El Chapo was not some cops and robbers dynamic. The drug trade and the modern Mexican state developed together and intertwined with one another. Drug traffic ..read more

On this episode of THE MODERN MEXICO PODCAST host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Laura Calderon, the Executive Director of Justice in Mexico, a San Diego-based think tank. In spite of persistently high levels of organized crime-related violence, Tijuana has become one of Mexico’s success stories when it comes to "nearshoring" investment. The city has a thriving industrial sector that employs over a quarter of a million people. Between 2016 and 2022 foreign aerospace, automotive, and electronics companies invested over 11 billion dollars in the state of Baja California where Tijuana is loca ..read more

On this episode of THE MODERN MEXICO PODCAST host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to James Frederich, a veteran Mexico correspondent who traveled to the beach city Acapulco to report on the storm damage caused by Hurricane Otis. While 200 mile per hour gusts of wind buffeted the city, residents and hotel guests cowered inside. Nearly 250,000 homes were damaged and many beachfront hotels were almost totally destroyed. Initial estimates calculated that over 80% of the city’s 20,000 hotel rooms had been damaged and that the bill for reconstruction would top sixteen billion dollars. Mexico’s presi ..read more

On this episode of the Modern Mexico Podcast host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Laura Tillman about her new book, THE MIGRANT CHEF: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LALO GARCIA. Lalo Garcia is one of Mexico's most celebrated chefs. His flagship restaurant Maximo Bistrot has helped to burnish Mexico's reputation as a culinary superpower. Laura gives a detailed overview of her work writing about Lalo's impact on Modern Mexico's gastronomy and soft power standing in the world. Asked about her favorite dish she has seen Lalo prepare, she says, “One that comes to mind that I watched him make is baby corn ..read more

On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Stephanie Brewer, a Mexico-focused security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. Brewer recently published a report, "Human Rights and Democratic Controls in a Context of Increasing Militarization in Mexico." When he was an aspiring presidential candidate, Mexico's current president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador demanded justice in the case of 43 missing students from Guerrero and criticized the rampant impunity that has long protected the politically powerful in Mexico. Lopez Obrador once promise ..read more

On the latest episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to veteran BBC correspondent Will Grant about his new book, ¡POPULISTA! THE RISE OF LATIN AMERICA'S 21ST CENTURY STRONGMAN. During the conversation, Parish Flannery and Grant discuss the differences between populism and authoritarianism and compare and contrast Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, and other modern authoritarian leaders in Latin America. Grant says that one of the leaders that he thinks is most si ..read more

On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Steve Woodman, a Mexico-based organized crime researcher at Advanced Intelligence Solutions, about the long history of vanilla production in the state of Veracruz, Mexico by Totonaco indigenous residents. Nathaniel talks about his recent visit to Veracruz where he met with indigenous vanilla growers and learned about the problems the sector faces today. One grower gave a tip for staying safe: "Always carry a shotgun." Veracruz is a hotspot for organized crime activity and vanilla growers in the state struggle ..read more

On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery speaks to historian Peter Guardino about the Mexican American War, a conflict that saw U.S. soldiers invade Mexico City and force Mexico to sell the U.S. a significant chunk of its northern terrain. Today, border cities such as El Paso and Juarez, Tijuana and San Diego have emerged as major population hubs, home to millions of residents and thousands of businesses that benefit from cross-border trade. But, at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, much of the western swathe of the modern-day border zone was inhabit ..read more

On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks about Mexico's solar energy sector with Diego Rivera Rivota, a Research Associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Mexico is one of the best potential locations for solar energy generation in the world—it has great sun with minimal seasonal variability. Overall, Mexico is well-positioned to produce competitively priced solar-generated electricity. Over the last decade, Mexico has successfully attracted billions of dollars in new investment in solar energy. Over the last few years, Me ..read more

In this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Falko Ernst, a Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group about the dynamics of organized crime in Michoacan, Mexico. The discussion examines the connections between Mexico's multi-billion dollar avocado sector and the violence that has killed over 10,000 people in Michoacan during the presidency of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Falko gives Lopez Obrador a "D-" grade for his security policies in Michoacan. Nathaniel talks about his field work investigating the role of organized crime in the avocado sector ..read more