logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2024
1h 2m

El Salvador's War on MS-13: Nayib Bukele...

The Underworld Podcast
About this episode
Since 2019, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has smashed the country’s two main gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, throwing almost 80,000 people into megaprisons and implementing a harsh but effective “state of exception,” aka martial law. Murder rates have plummeted and, for the first time in years, Salvadorans can live without the fear of violence, extortion, or ... Show More
Up next
Aug 19
Fidel Castro: Cuba’s Cocaine Trafficker-in-Chief?
In 1959, when Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, they wasted no time booting out American business owners, casinos and drug kingpins — much to the delight of US law enforcers. But as time passed, and Castro’s socialist regime sought ever-tric ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 12
The Dixie Mafia's Texas Millionaire Murders
When Bill Richardson, a troubled oilman and pro pigeon shooter, was gunned down on his Corpus Christi doorstep in 1971, everybody assumed it was an open-and-shut organized crime hit. But when Richardson’s supposed killers walked free from court, and another body showed up in the ... Show More
1h 5m
Aug 5
Mexico's New Ultraviolent Narco-Terrorists: The CDN
From the ashes of Los Zetas rose the Cartel del Noreste or Northeast Cartel, a brutal splinter group led by the infamous Treviño Morales family and headquartered in the blood-soaked border city of Nuevo Laredo. Known for their military tactics, narco-tanks, and paramilitary wing ... Show More
54m 56s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
Mexico's Most Violent Election
Claudia Sheinbaum will be the next President of Mexico. In national elections on June 2, the protégé of President López Obrador and former Mayor of Mexico City won a landslide victory, earning nearly 59% of the vote. She is a former climate scientist and will be the first woman a ... Show More
27m 59s
Jul 17
Part Two: Antonio Salazar: The Smartest Fascist Dictator
Antonio Salazar spends his post-war years helping the CIA learn how to torture people and starting a disastrous war with a large portion of Africa. Then he dies! Hooray! Sources:Antonio Salazar de Oliveira of Portugal and his Estado Novo Antonio Salazar: A Quiet Autocrat Who Held ... Show More
1h 14m
Jul 10
Episode 1088: Deadly alliance in Sinaloa Cartel threatens flood of fentanyl to Europe
A rift in the powerful Sinaloa Cartel brings bloody war to the streets of Mexico - sucking the financial resources of the rival sides.Now, a crackdown by the US and Mexico on fentanyl trafficking has depleted their millions even further, spurring Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán’s sons ... Show More
41m 37s
Oct 2023
Rodrigo Duterte’s Deadly Promise
When Rodrigo Duterte ran for the presidency of the Philippines and won, in 2016, the Western press noted the similarities between this unconventional candidate and Donald Trump—who also liked to casually espouse violence on the campaign trail and beyond.  Duterte used provocative ... Show More
22m 37s
Jun 25
Introducing: Fidel Castro - Real Dictators
This is a taster episode of the Fidel Castro story. To hear episodes 2-10, head over to Real Dictators and hit follow. Fidel Castro - a revolutionary turned strongman dictator, beloved by his supporters and loathed by his enemies. The bête noire of the United States who pushed th ... Show More
1h 4m
Apr 2025
A Deadly Nazi Cult in Chile
For nearly 40 years, a secretive colony in the Chilean countryside hid unspeakable horrors: child abuse, torture, and a twisted legacy of Nazism. Colonia Dignidad, led by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, thrived not just as a cult but as a brutal tool of oppression during Chile’s Pinochet r ... Show More
33m 39s
Mar 2025
"Imprisoning a Revolution: Writings from Egypt's Incarcerated" (U California Press, 2025)
Imprisoning a Revolution: Writings from Egypt’s Incarcerated (U California Press, 2025), edited by Collective Antigone, is a groundbreaking collection of writings by political prisoners in Egypt. It offers a unique lens on the global rise of authoritarianism during the last decad ... Show More
1h 6m
Jul 15
Part One: Antonio Salazar: The Smartest Fascist Dictator
Robert sits down with with Jeff May to talk about Antonio Salazar, the economics professor who became a brutal fascist dictator and was, sadly, really damn good at it. (2 Part Series)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
1h 12m
Nov 2024
How to defend democracy — and fight autocracy | Leopoldo Lopez
Seventy-two percent of the world's population lives under some sort of autocratic rule, says freedom fighter Leopoldo Lopez. In a rousing call to defend democracy worldwide, he shares the story of his imprisonment and exile for leading the movement against Venezuela's authoritari ... Show More
19m 23s
Jun 2021
El Sapo (Jose Ortiz Munoz)
One of Mexico’s worst murderers and known assassins was Jose Ortiz Muñoz. He was known as El Sapo due to his physique and face. He was a soldier in the post revolutionary era who began a reign of terror that started at the age of 9. He lived a life of crime and murder, murdering ... Show More
39m 43s