06/28/23 06/28/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are pleased the supreme court rejected which would have interfered with the government, which would have opened the door for politicians to undermine the will of the people. amy: the supreme court begins its final week of the term by dismissing the independent state legislature theory.

that state legislatures can write rules and draw maps not subject to review by state courts. we will speak with michael waldman, president of the brennan center for justice, author of "the supermajority: how the supreme court divided america." then poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the united states. >> poverty kills two and half times more than drug overdoses. it lingers year after year and, of poverty is associated with 60% more deaths than current poverty. putting only heart disease and cancer and smoking-related deaths above the number of people killed by poverty. amy: we will speak with bishop william barber of the poor people's campaign. then to honduras where residents are fighting private charter cities established by u.s.

corporations with autonomy from the national government. >> in is venessa cárdenas -- my name is venessa cárdenas. my fight is against charter cities. because of the lot it has and the negative impact it will have on our community, their lack of transparency. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the u.s. supreme court has rejected a legal theory that would have radically increased the power of state legislatures to reshape how federal elections are conducted and would have made it easier to draw up gerrymandered congressional maps. writing for the majority in tuesday's 6-to-3 ruling, chief

justice john roberts rejected the so-called independent state legislature theory promoted by north carolina republican lawmakers. the decision comes as the supreme court is poised to deliver major rulings on affirmative action and the fate of president biden's student debt relief plan. we'll have more on this week's blockbuster cases at the supreme court following headlines. in climate news, smoke from unprecedented canadian wildfires darken skies over much of the midwestern united states tuesday, triggering very unhealthy air quality warnings in chicago, detroit, milwaukee. forecasters predict winds will push the smoke further east, bringing a return of hazardous air to new york and parts of the northeast. this week the plume from worsening fires in québec and ontario crossed the north atlantic, bringing hazy skies to spain and portugal will stop meanwhile, warnings and advisories for excessive heat in

effect again today and several southwestern and southern states. the electric reliability council of texas reports record power consumption amidst a three week old heat wave that sent temperatures as high as 120 degrees fahrenheit, 49 degrees celsius. the texas tribune reports at least nine prisoners, including two men in their 30's, have died of heart attacks or unknown causes imprisons lacking air conditioning. science communicator susan joy hassell says a collapse of texas overstrained electrical grid right now would lead to widespread deaths. >> the texas grid appears to be very vulnerable to a heat event like this because it does not have the capacity to bring in power from other places. this heat dome is expanding. they say 15 million people are exposed to dangerous heat by this heat dome. amy: a russian missile attack on the eastern ukrainian city of kramatorsk has killed at least

nine civilians, including three children. tuesday evening's attack on a crowded pizzeria just after 8:00 local time left dozens more p.m. injured. this is valentina, a 64-year-old who witnessed the aftermath of the assault. >> iran here after the explosion. i run a café nearby. everything has been blown up here. there's nothing. no windows, no doors. that is what i see, destruction everywhere. it is fear. i don't even know how to describe it. my son was killed in the war and now this. amy: belarus' leader says he convinced the head of russia's wagner group to call off a mutiny last weekend that saw heavily-armed mercenaries advance to within 120 miles of moscow. president alexander lukashenko said during a weekend phone call russian president vladimir putin promised to wipe out wagner's forces and was considering killing wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin.

lukashenko said he later relayed putin's comments to prigozhin in a separate call. >> says, but we want justice. they want to strangle us. we will march in moscow. i say, halfway there they will squash you like a bug. amy: u.s. intelligence officials have told "new york times" officials serve a had advance knowledge of yevgeny prigozhin's plans. on tuesday, russia's embattled defense minister sergei shoigu, whom prigozhin has assailed for mismanaging russia's war in ukraine, appeared publicly as president putin led a moscow ceremony honoring russian soldiers and police for their actions during the mutiny. the biden administration has imposed new sanctions on companies accused of profiting from the activities of the wagner group in africa.

the treasury department says the sanctions will punish four companies based in russia, the united arab emirates, and the central african republic that extract gold, diamonds, and other minerals to help fund the mercenary force. the sanctions were announced after russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said monday that wagner mercenaries will not be withdrawn from africa following last weekend's mutiny. >> several hundred russian servicemen are working in the central african republic as instructors. this work will be continued. amy: is sierra leone, the president has won reelection. he narrowly escaped a runoff election, securing over 55% of the votes needed to declare victory. his main opponent, samura kamara of the all people's congress, has rejected official results. he said on social media, "it is a sad day for our beloved country. it is a frontal attack on our

fledgling democracy." thousands of nurses in texas and kansas walked off the job for a one-day strike to demand better workplace safety. nurses have denounced understaffing in three hospitals. it was the largest nurses strike in texas and kansas history. this is a neonatal intensive care unit nurse whose has worked at ascension seton medical center in austin, texas, for 14 years. >> i know a lot of coworkers and a lot of new nurses, there first thing to do when they get in their car after 14 hour shifts is they just cry. so they can compose themselves to go home to their family. and not carry that with them as best as they can. they know they have been called to this profession, they have been driven to this profession to take care of babies, take care of families and they are

not able to do that. amy: here in new york, serious misconduct and neglect by guards the city federal jail are what led to serial pedophile jeffrey epstein's death by suicide in 2019 according to a years long investigation by the justice department which released a 120 page report tuesday accusing officials of the now shuttered mcc of creating an environment that allowed epstein the opportunity to hang himself. the doj inspector general detailedhe finngs tuesy. >> h epstei's cleen search as requed, it uld ve revead get access that she had excess clothing and sheets. also the cera system was fully functional, relting inheid rerded vid evidenc at we detmined in

sconductwe did n uncover evidence contradicting the fbi's deteination at thereas no crinality connection with how epstein die. amy: at the time of his death, jeffrey epstein was awaiting trial for sex trafficking other charges. in more news from new york, gothamist is reporting the city's department of correction is planning to purchase over $90,000-worth of high-powered submachine guns for a specially-trained emergency security unit working at the troubled rikers island jail complex. this comes after new york's department of correction earlier this month cut some $17 million in job training and social programs for prisoners. new york voters headed to the polls tuesday for an off-year primary election to choose several city council seats and two district attorney races. longtime progressive charles bairn failed to keep his new york city council seat, losing to chris banks who was backed by houston aquatic minority leader

hakeem jeffries. in the most closely watched race, yusef salaam, one of exonerated central park five, was declared the winner in a contested bid for a city council seat in harlem. salaam defeated close opponent democratic assemblywoman inez dickens, who had received the endorsement of new york mayor eric adams, by a landslide. salaam was one of five black and latinx teenagers wrongfully convicted of the 1989 beating and rape of a white woman. he spent seven years in jail. salaam has said he will overhaul new york city's criminal legal system, end mass incarceration and help bring about police reform. to see our 2016 interview with yusuf salaam, visit our website democracynow.org. and in manhattan, public housing tenants rallied on tuesday to demand the city halt its controversial $1.5 billion plan to demolish two public housing complexes and replace them with new high-rise apartments. officials say the plan to tear down the fulton and chelsea-elliott houses is more cost-effective than repairing

the apartments. but tenants argue the demolition will drive further privatization, gentrification and displacement. some tenants opposed to the demolition reported they were turned away by city authorities tuesday as they tried to attend a resident engagement meeting. this is george weaver, a fulton tenant since 1993. >> we have got a mental crisis, a homeless crisis. it is going to get worse if we tear down public housing. we're going have people sleeping on the streets. it is not just happening in new york, it is happening across america. see what happened in chicago. -- you see what happened in chicago. [indiscernible] amy: thanks to democracy now!'s sonyi lopez for that report. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, with juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan.

juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: this week marks the end of the supreme court's current term and tuesday voting rights advocate welcomed a ruling that preserved checks and balances in elections. in a 6-3 decision, the justices dismissed the so-called independent state legislature theory that state legislatures have nearly unlimited power to make rules for federal elections, and draw partisan congressional maps that are not subject to review by state courts. this is white house spokesperson olivia dalton responding to the decision in moore v. harper. >> we are pleased the supreme court rejected the extremely legal theory presented in this case which would have interfered with the government, which would have open the door for politicians to undermine the will of the people. amy: this comes as the supreme court is set to issue major

decisions thursday and friday, including on student debt and affirmative action. for more, we are joined by michael waldman, president and ceo of the brennan center for justice. his new book on how supreme court's conservative majority has ushered in a radical new era is titled "the supermajority: how the supreme court divided america." his piece on tuesday's ruling is headlined "the 'independent state legislature theory' is dead." michael, welcome to democracy now! why don't you start off by explaining who moore and harper are and why this decision, which for many may sound very bureaucratic, is so fundamental and is such a surprise in the way the supreme court, the the conservative supreme court ruled. >> it was fundamental. i don't know it was such a surprise because this was such a crackpot idea that it would have been an utter revolution in our democracy had they done anything other than what they did.

the facts of the case made that very clear. north carolina is an evenly decided state -- evenly divided state. the legislature drew congressional map that was very, very gerrymandered for the republicans. it was 11 republican seats and i think three or four democratic seats. the state supreme court there said that is unconstitutional under our state constitution. the legislature said, you have no role here. we get to do whatever we want. they claimed, and some of the maga lawyers have become to claim that the constitution gives state legislatures the power to state election rules, federal elections with no checks and balances from state courts were constitutions or governors or the voters. that nobody noticed it until now. and it is a crackpot idea and it has never been found by another

court. it is great the court rejected it. they never should have taken the case. they were pretty strong in the language they used. at this point, it was not such a surprise. josé the voting rights act a couple of weeks ago was more of a surprise -- i will say the voting rights act a couple of weeks ago was more of a surprise. juan: what does this mean in terms of the redistricting of north carolina. what happens now in that state in particular? >> well, north carolina will be affected by this less than many other places. that is because during the most recent election, the voters chose conservative justices for the state supreme court. so even though the supreme court there blocked the gerrymander last year, the new supreme court majority has said, oh, it is just fine. it does not affect what is going on in north carolina. however, it will continue to

empower state courts around the country to block gerrymander's, to police the legislatures, and to keep legislators from trying to entrench themselves or advance their party with these egregious maps. it is pretty important in that way. it also makes clear as we look toward 2024 and the potential problems that we would have in that election that state courts can play their appropriate role. there some language that gives people a little bit of pause to make sure he does not turn into the next problem, but it basically says the way it has been done for the last 200 years is how it should be still done. amy: talk about your reservation, that this is not quite as much of the victory as some are hailing it. the whole issue of the court saying that state courts

themselves cannot go beyond their bounds but giving a lot of power to the federal courts, michael waldman. >> we think it is in extraordinary victory. that is the worry that some observers have. of course, it is worth watching out for. we say in some respects that this was not new, that the federal courts are ready were going to police the state courts if they went off the rails. the standards here are a little fuzzy. there is always a risk it could become grounds for federal judges to try to interfere. perhaps i am a bit cynical, but i think they already had that ability anyway. i don't think it changes that much. but some who look at it worry that is the next problem. that -- i have to refer to the legislator and refer to it, calling it a theory is very generous.

it is a crackpot idea. it was never a theory. but it is in the past tense. it has been rejected very roundly. of course, we want to make sure these federalist society right-wing federal judges don't overstep their bounds in policing what state courts do when they are dealing with federal elections. juan: michael, i want to ask about one of the upcoming decisions that millions of americans, especially those with student debt, are by now that will occur in the next few days. what is your sense of how the court will act? also there are activists who argue if the supreme court strikes down biden's debt relief plan, that he still has the authority to forgive student loans under the higher education act. what is the potential of him doing that and also the advisability of that as an alternate path to debt forgiveness? >> you are right, that there are

a few more days left in the supreme court term and they still have quite a few big decisions to announce. one of them is the student debt relief plan. this is something that even the biden administration worried was on such -- was on shaky constitutional ground when they did it for something to be done like this by him through executive action. the interesting question is will the court strike it down or will they say, well, we might not like this but the people who are bringing this case lack it is called standing, meaning they can't really show they were injured by somebody else getting their student debt relieved in that way. there was a ruling the other day where they blocked or they rejected texas' effort to force the biden administration to change its immigration policy. they said texas lacked standing. it may be this is an area where

they are saying to red states or right-wing activists, we are pretty conservative court, extreme court, but you can't just take an op-ed and send it to us and ask us to implement it, you need to follow rules. i think it is also the case came forward that it has been a conservative crusade to limit standing in the federal courts because they don't want environmental lists -- environmentalists and activists. whether and how there might be other steps on student debt that the administration could take, partly i guess will depend on what kind of ruling they get. the biden administration has been reluctant to do this -- they have generally not pushed the executive power beyond the lines of its extent. and i don't know whether they

would hear or not. but they do have ways to do different things using different parts of the law that they have not always used. amy: michael waldman, affirmative-action. can you talk about what the court is deciding and how significant it is if they rule against affirmative action to colleges, universities have to abide by what they said? >> in all likelihood, this will be the blockbuster case of the term and they're saving it for the last episode of the season as they sometimes do or they are like finishing term papers and saving the work for the last minute. the supreme court is hearing challenges to affirmative-action using race as a factor for university admissions in both public and private universities. two different cases, one from harvard and one from the university of north carolina. this is a really big deal.

most observers do expect them to rule that you cannot use race as a factor in admissions. in the way it has been done for years down in higher education. it would be usually consequential at a time of massive demographic change and massive pressure on our university systems. the universities around the country, as i understand it, have already anticipated a lot of these rulings and are looking to make changes. one of the questions is, are there other ways to promote diversity including on class or location that will not just replicate the kind of old school white traditional student bodies of the past, but will enable universities to continue seeking a diverse student body. there was a great question that justice as kentucky brown jackson asked during the oral argument -- ketanji brown

jackson asked during the oral argument. she said, if there are two essays applying for college, what is from somebody who says, i want to go to unc because my grandfather went there and it will eat a lot for me to go there for that reason. the other person right and says, i want to go to unc because my grandfather could not go there because of his race, therefore, it would mean a lot to me to go there. are they really saying you cannot say that or take that into account in the second essay but you can in effect have -- take white race into account as in the first essay? you can see how disruptive this would be. it will affect a lot of things going forward. juan: michael, i want to turn to your book "the supermajority: how the supreme court divided america." you raise several important points.

one is the unique role of the supreme court in our country versus high courts in other countries. you also talk about why 2022 was such a seminal, pivotal moment in terms of how the supreme court acts. can you elaborate on both of those? >> yeah. you are exactly right. we take for granted we have this court that is nine unelected people serving for lifetime terms that has so much power that we sit around every june wondering what rulings they're going to make and what country do we live in as a result. it has this power only because we, the people, give it this power. it has developed over time. it really depends on the public's faith in the court that really something like about politics or at least not a purely political, purely

ideological, purely power-driven actor. in 2022, it the first full-term of the super majority of six very conservative justices who you and your viewers are familiar with, how they got installed. six very conservative justices, their first term. they moved the court and therefore the country hard to the right in three days last june. first, they did a decision called bruin which was by far the most sweeping second amendment ruling in the country's history that basically said you cannot when considering the constitutionality of a gun, you cannot take public safety today into account. you can only look at history and tradition, meaning what were the rules back then in the founding era? the next day was dobbs, the first time the supreme court revoked a constitutional fundamental right kick nice to buy the courts for have a for

overturning roe v. wade and the right to reproductive choice and did it in with a puts many other privacy rights at risk. the third big decision got less attention called west virginia versus epa where they began the project and the continuing it strongly of curbing the power of regulatory agencies to protect the public on issues like the environment, worker safety, and other things like that. they crammed 3 -- they crammed decades of osha policy into those three days and i think the country is moving in one direction and the court is veering sharply in another direction. that creates a crisis. it's public trust has collapsed in the last year according to all public opinion polls. there's don's stop controvert -- there is nonstop controversies and scandals. we are seeing a real reaction and real pushback which will help shape our politics going

forward. amy: michael waldman, i wanted to ask you about these controversies swirling around one supreme court justice after another and whether there will be rules imposed. you have the mega donors, the billionaires, harlan crow and justice clarence thomas. you have got paul singer, the mega donor, both of them having major business before the supreme court post up singer with samuel alito. neither of them disclosing this so they say it really did not matter then why did they disclose that on their forms? what kind of regulation do you see needs to happen? what kind of rules to the supreme court justices have to abide by that have not been posed? >> alito said, i can take this travel because he is my friend and then also said, but i can vote on his cases because i barely know the guy. it is a real problem. the supreme court is the only

court in the united states that does not have to follow a binding code of ethics. nobody is so wise should be the judge in their own case. at the very least, mentally -- minimally, they need a binding code of ethics. i think it is also important when look at term limits for supreme court justices. 18 year term say with presidents getting to make appointments every two years. these are very popular crust left and right. the something that people get the idea nobody should have too much public power for two wrong -- for too long. it can be done by amendment and we also think by statute. if you look at the state supreme courts come everyone but one has either term limits or retirement age. it helps make the court more accountable, helps drain toxicity out of the nominations. these kinds of reforms are among the things we need to be doing right now to bring the supreme

court in line with our constitution and our democracy. amy: we want to thank you for being with us, michael waldman president and ceo of the brennan , center for justice. his new book "the supermajority: , how the supreme court divided america." next up, poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in united states. we will speak with bishop william barber of the poor people's campaign. find out why he just led a march from the supreme court. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "crash the car" by knower. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. democratic congressmembers pramila jayapal and barbara lee have introduced a resolution called the third reconstruction to end poverty throughout the united states by addressing systemic racism, health

inequity, and militarism, and other issues. it was drafted with input from the poor people's campaign which just led a three-day poor people's campaign moral poverty action congress in washington, d.c. this comes as child poverty is on the rise after the expanded child tax credit was allowed to expire and hundreds of thousands are being kicked off of medicaid. a recent paper found poverty is the fourth greatest cause of u.s. deaths. for more, we are joined by bishop dr. william barber, co-chair poor people's campaign and president of repairers of the breach. bishop barbara, welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about why the poor people's campaign held a mock funeral starting with the supreme court and going to the u.s. capitol? you have talked about poverty

being a death sentence and how what was enacted during covid that amazingly in some cases saved lives now has been taken away and more people are dying. >> we did it because of how grotesque and immoral it is that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death. that is a conservative figure. the researchers did not even deal with the children 15 years and younger. just say that, poverty is the fourth leading cause of death, higher than homicides, higher than respiratory disease. we have the highest child poverty rate of any country like us in terms of economic power. it is time we intensify what we're doing. so last week, sponsored by the root pairs of the breach -- repairs of the breach, thousands of faith leaders and economists and public health people came together to form a 30 state

strategy to intensify come to force our nation's leaders to confront the american death sentence of poverty. we choose totally unnecessary. this is before covid. poverty was the fourth leading cause of death before covid. during covid, three hunter 30,000 people died from the lack of health care. -- 330 thousand people died from lack of health care. lack of access to things that would have prevented their death. why do here so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence and america but poverty kills more people that all of those things? why is there no surgeon general's warning on low-wage jobs as a form of death? we joined with representatives lee and job paul to introduce the third reconstruction.

that a democratic or republican resolve, but a human resolve, amoral resolve to eradicate poverty. this death is unnecessary. it is policy murder. we also met with over 400 congress persons. others refused to let us meet on the steps of the capital but we kept going because living wages could stop debt. health care could stop death. we directing the war economy could stop death. voting rights could stop death because it would allow people -- you stop voter suppression, undermine people getting elected who will be able to fight against the poor and cause more

debt. we are intensifying in this coming year, 2024, planning 30 major actions, nonviolent and state capitals, june 15 of next year, nasa poor people's low-wage workers and moral march on washington, d.c. and to the polls. we are going to be mobilizing 87 million poor and low with people. for a low will people now make up 30% of the general electric and over 40% in demographic -- that states. they felt the system has abandoned them. we are saying vote and change the system. that is what we have to do. otherwise we become accessories to the crime of policy murder step juan: reverend barbara, mentioned low-wage labor as a health threat. the minimum wage in this country has not been raised -- the

federal minimum wage in 14 years. we hear all this talk about inflation, how americans are grappling with inflation but yet millions and millions of americans are still working and you say in these low-wage jobs and congress refuses to act on the minimum wage. what will it take to affect this simple approach to raising the -- eliminating the number of people who are in poverty? >> one of the things we talk about is among poor and low wealth people in appalachia or the delta, alabama, new york, california is you have power now. in most states, it just 20% of porton low-wage workers would mobilize and vote in agenda for themselves, they could determine who sits in the presidency, the governorship, and the senate and even in the house races both state and federal.

in north carolina, 19% need to mobilize. florida, 4%. georgia, 7%. michigan, 1%. we are saying listen, during covid, low-wage workers saved us. we called them essential workers. we treated them like they were expendable. we said go to work in the most dangerous jobs but you don't have a living wage. go to work, but you won't have health care. this is social murder. it is wrong. it is no longer -- it is not just economics, it is the health of it. we should have a surgeon general's warning on low-wage jobs. if we just raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour, which is lower than a living wage fight to be, but $17 an hour, some 2 million americans would come up out of poverty. over 40% of african-americans would come up out of poverty.

millions of white people, poor white people make up the largest number of porton low-wage workers in this country. most poor and low-wage workers are the working poor. then to suggest as some faulty economists say we are keeping wages low is the way to address inflation is just wrong. the fact of the matter is, inflation is caused by war, intimate. -- caused by war, covid. we are calling for a meeting directly with the president. we are calling on the president to do a major bully pulpit speech saying we cannot as americans go around this world and challenge other nations and poverty is the fourth leading

cause of death in the wealthiest nation in the world. we must call ourselves -- what we're going to do is make that call have to happen. we are not backing up. we are intensifying because really, it is about people's lives. the people we took into the white house, all of them had either experienced death in their families or death in their community from poverty. from poverty. not from homicide, from poverty. not from respiratory disease, poverty. that is just immoral and wrong and we have to change it. amy: bishop barber, as we begin to wrap up, on another topic i wanted to ask about your decision to retire from church service, you get your final sermon at greeley church in goldsboro, north carolina recently. you spoke about the testimony of the full. explain. >> i talked about that because

the majority of the people in the bible have some crippling reality -- mentally, physically, or otherwise, economically. yet god used them to be transformative. there is a great scripture in the bible about it. i retired from pastoral ministry but not from ministry. i'm going to pastor the movement. i will try to raise more and more people who see themselves as important instruments of fundamental change. we have so much work to do. i watched this case out of north carolina. that case is a reaction to the work we did in moral monday when we won. we beat extremists on voter suppression. we beat them on redistricting. amy: you're talking about the independent state legislature theory being obliterated by the supreme court. >> exactly. in 1868, 2 ministers who helped

lead the writing of the north carolina constitution after slavery that put in the constitution the very things we now use today to fight extremists at the state level. in the support of the nation knows the reason they were trying to get that past and get the supreme court to agree with independent legislature is because we had been winning using the state constitution and we are winning because of the efforts of people of faith long ago who fought for equality in our constitution. that is the work i want to continue. i have been pastoring 30 plus years and now it is time for me to train other ministers coming up and engage in elder and past movement. i am humbled by the reality i have the opportunity to do that. amy: bishop dr. william barber, cochair of the poor people's campaign and now founder of the center for public theology and public policy at yale divinity school.

thank you for being with us. when we come back, we go to honduras where residents are fighting private charter cities established by u.s. corporations. these are cities run by u.s. companies. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "here comes the sun" by nina simone. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn to honduras where committees are fighting back against privatization and foreign exportation. the hundred president castro and the -- and congress repealed the law enacted by the previous right-wing administration that established what are known as economic development and employment zones. the law also allow the private

cities and special economic zones to have functional administrative autonomy from the national government which opponents say it a threat to honduran sovereignty and livelihood of local community's. a delaware-based corporation called próspera has launched a case to challenge the repeal of the law under the dominican republic central america free trade agreement. the company established one of the zones on the island of rotan and is seeking almost $11 billion, which amounts to nearly two thirds of honduras' entire 2022 budget. last month, democratic senator elizabeth warren and 32 others in the u.s. congress released a letter calling on the biden administration to intervene, writing -- "large corporations have weaponized, and continue to weaponize, this faulty and undemocratic dispute settlement regime to benefit their own interests at the expense of workers, consumers, and small businesses globally."

for more, we're going to brussels, belgium, to speak with melinda st. louis, director of public citizens global trade watch. in honduras, we are joined by venessa cárdenas, the leader of the community council of crawfish rock, the area directly impacted by the próspera zede on the island of roatán. we welcome you both to democracy now! we are going to begin in honduras with venessa cárdenas. can you explain what is taking place for people to understand around the world, you have u.s. corporations running cities? venssa? i think she is not hearing nessel i will go to melinda st. louis. >> it is great to be here.

thank you. i look forward to hearing from venessa. it is absolutely outrageous that in honduras, after the coup in 2009, there is this radical project to create these zedes, private cities that u.s. corporations could come in and control the territory. the territory was removed from municipal jurisdiction and they had thin the power as a corporation to set their own revelatory standards, tax policy, monetary policy, security forces, had their own separate core system. basically, run their own government. in the case of roatán, this company próspera came in and established this private zone where the government structure does not allow for representative democracy from the people of the community.

at first, the people in the community did not even know this was happening. it is happening in such an opaque format. once people understood what this meant in terms of taking away honduran sovereignty and taking away land from communities, there was massive uprising. indigenous people, community organization, even the largest business association in honduras opposed this corrupt law. through the democratic process, fortunately, they managed to overturn this corrupt law. the administration ran on a platform of appealing this law. and they did so. they make good on their promise. the national symbol overturned or repealed the law. that really should be the end of the story. a victory for democracy in honduras after a very dark

period of right wing rule. and then, that is not the end of the story because of the trade agreement that no one knew about. these secretive trade rules that empower corporations to be able to challenge democratic policies outside of the court system. this is in a private tribunal, private sector lawyers, three arbitrators who will decide whether to basically ransack the treasury of the tiny country of honduras to the tune of $11 billion, which, as you mentioned, would bankrupt the country. the company is using this as an additional tool to try to bully the government to not implement the democratic will of the people. it is very complicated but it is very simple. once again, this neocolonial project of u.s. companies going

to the region but in this very radical way. juan: i think we have venessa cárdenas in honduras now. i want to go to her. when i was in honduras as a reporter 30 years ago, there were already very large export processing zones. basically, to manufacture goods and send them to the united states. but this is a whole other stage here of whole cities. could you talk about how your community crawfish rock found out about this and what the previous government had done to keep the basic information from the people? >> yes. hello. well, we did not hear from the government, of course. we heard it through a community leader. she practically was telling us underneath because she was

scared. she wanted to tell the community, she wanted a community to know. i got it from a colleague of mine. she sent it through whatsapp messages. we had to knock on doors because everyone -- no one knew about it. they knew nothing about it. first of all, we need to know this zede -- próspera is not like the rest. this is a state within the state which had its own system, run by a technical secretary. the camp itself is in the shadows. no one knows who the members are. [indiscernible] they have not been transformed

--hey haveot been ansparenin anythg they have de. it is an ethnic community. we had the right to be free and be consulted on any type of prect thindone iour mmunity d we havnot been. the powerhe taties anthe w gives them is so much concern. we are very concerned about that. amy: i was looking at the ads to attract his nieces. it talked about these zedes, sang around the world there are something like 5000 of these zones but 500 of them, 10%, are in latin america. here in -- if you can talk about your community, how it is impacted. and the fact this was imposed by the previous president joh, who

was extradited to the united states for drug trafficking, for corruption, even though it was repealed, how it is being enforced right now in your community and the particular effects on your community? >> próspera had a very negative impact on our community. it has had a psychological impact as well as physical impact. psychological because of the mental stress we are under. we don't know when our home will be taken from us. we have old people. we have single mothers. we have widows. it is a problem to be stressed all the time, when we will have to leave our community. physical, there was not -- no one wanted to do anything with it. there was no development. certainly was abolished last

year -- people have started to build homes. before that, because of the zede problem we had and still have, people did not want to fix things because we did not know if we had to move. there was a constant strain as well as the environmental destruction of things done in the community. many spies oanimals d trs as wel aour mainource ofater. we alrea have a wl that h been dried up. there are so many things that have impacteds negati that they prosed jobs and there are very little jobs that we can apply to me people have gotten.

the consuences are more negative than positive. juan: i want to ask melinda st. louis, who is this firm próspera , this delaware firm? who runs it? given the fact many of these companies creams they had the right to manufacture in many of these countries, what is different in terms of what these private cities offer to foreigners? is this another haven for crypto utopia? protect millionaires -- for tech millionaires? >> it remains to be seen because it is quite a shadowy operation. próspera is a delaware-based company. it was created for the zede, to create this zede in honduras. as far as we can tell, there is

not a goal to do manufacturing, to really have major jobs. he can look like on the surface a tourist community, like a residential community. but what it looks like is really more of a political project stop there was certainly there are a number of members of the próspera community who are very active in the cryptocurrency movement. they have made bitcoin legal tender. they have created an opportunity to become an e-resident. so you don't have to live there but if you pay a fee, you can be a e-resident and open up a business using the very lax the tory framework where you can propose your own regulatory code and basically operate outside of a jurisdiction of the united states or honduras. so i think that is really more

whetr projec is. ofróspa. so in terms ocontribung development, thaseems ve unclr. in ts casthat thehave unched ainst theovernmen of honduras, they are claimin $11 llion is what they pected fure profs might be in the fute and th is why they a claiminthat und thesextreme rul that ar included in the trade agreement, that they should be able to be compensated unless honduras basically lets him do whatever they want according to the law they previously invested under that was put into place under the regime of joh. amy: can expand the role of captain and the letter that senator warren and others have signed, what you're demanding of the biden administration? >> in captive, there are these

extreme investor rights that corporations can sue governments outside the court system to demand billions or millions of and billions in taxpayer compensation. this is a very radical element of our past trading system. so much so, it is no longer considered to be a viable thing to include in trade agreements. the biden administration is no longer seeking these extreme corporate rights. and yet it exists in cafta so this company is utilizing it. so senator warren and 30 members are calling on the biden administration to weigh in on behalf of honduras in this case so they do not bankrupt this country. and also to seek to remove these extreme investor rights from cafta and other free-trade agreements given now that there is bipartisan opposition to this -- he's very extreme rules that are exploited by corporations like próspera.

amy: melinda st. louis, thank you for being with us public , citizen's global trade watch. and venessa cárdenas is the leader of the community council of crawfish rock, the area directly impacted by the próspera zede on the island of roatán. go to democracy now! to hear this

(sophie fouron) there's hardly ever anyone here. it's a tiny island. a bit like a treasure island. you have to wonder what the future of montserrat holds. the dot, the lovely dot on the map. they used to be 12,000 before the major volcanic eruptions. that changed the face of the island dramatically. when you're 4,000 on an island, there's something very charming about that. it has