Throughout the Americas, the U.S. government and international lenders are implementing a vast new policy designed to turn the hemisphere into one big common market.

The plan first calls for a North American Free Trade Agreement. Then, all of North and South American would be linked under the so-called “Enterprise for the Americas.”

Under this strategy, member countries would privatize national industries, implement austerity programs, and convert their economies to produce exports for the United States.

In many nations, this new policy is already in place. In this story, we travel to Honduras, where U.S. and World Bank loans have helped build prosperous shrimp farms along the country’s southern coast. But some critics warn of serious environmental and social costs.

Narration is by Edward James Olmos, who hosted a series of 13 half-hour Vanishing Homelands specials.