Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast "America, América" with Greg Grandin
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Feb 24, 2026 
Greg Grandin, C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, offers a hemispheric rethink of U.S.-Latin American ties. He explores how viewing the Americas together reframes conquest, disappearances, exportation of populations, racial narratives, and the political modern ties between neoliberalism and rising right-wing movements.
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Hayes Connects Cartel Violence To Hemispheric History
- Chris Hayes frames the episode by linking recent cartel violence and a CIA-assisted raid in Mexico to his earlier interview with Greg Grandin.
- Hayes says Grandin's hemispheric perspective helps make sense of U.S.-Mexico entanglements and recent unrest.
Latin America Served As Destination For Exported Populations
- Latin America has repeatedly been a destination for U.S. policies to 'export' surplus or unwanted populations, from free people of color debates to post-Civil War colonization ideas.
- Grandin traces this continuity to practices like forced removals and Trail of Tears precedents.
Memory Projects Blocked U.S. Rendition In Latin America
- The 1970s dictatorships institutionalized disappearances as a terror tactic; later democratic governments created memory projects that resisted U.S. rendition policies.
- Latin America refused to host Bush-era global rendition flights despite pressure in 2005.
