Journalist and fact-checker, The New Yorker
Contracorriente, July 2020. With Jennifer Ávila. In English here. La pandemia cayó al mundo del fraude. La compra de los hospitales móviles y otras irregularidades en el manejo de la pandemia en Honduras pone en evidencia algo que ha sido muy común en el fraude, la evasión de impuestos y el lavado de activos: las... Continue Reading →
The Chicago Reader, February 2020. With The Invisible Institute. Officer Salvador Enrique Chavez stood ready to apprehend a colleague accused of murder. It was December 29, 2017. The 40-year-old was two months from celebrating his 18th year on the Salvadoran police force. As a member of the SWAT-style unit called the Grupo de Reaccion Policial... Continue Reading →
Equal Times, March 2020. En español, français. Photographs by Martín Cálix. On an average day, Joel Almendares is counselling Honduran middle and high school students about how to excel in school and plan their futures. But he is also fighting off worries about violent attacks on himself and his unionised colleagues. Almendares is secretary general... Continue Reading →
Contra Corriente, Oct 2019, New York. En español aquí. With Jennifer Ávila. A trial in New York reveals narco control in Honduras *This article has been amended since its original publication to reflect changing news. Tony Hernández is a former congressman from Honduras' ruling National Party and the brother of the sitting president. Since... Continue Reading →
The Intercept, November 2018. There are an estimated 60,000 gang members in El Salvador. Benjamin knew many who wanted to leave the gangs. He wanted to show them it was possible. Benjamin suspected the Salvadoran gang Barrio 18 Revolucionarios would kill him when he asked permission to leave. He was 21 years old and had... Continue Reading →
The Intercept, October 2018. With Cora Currier. Leia em português. Oswaldo joined the Salvadoran gang Barrio 18 when he was 14 years old. By the time he was in his early 20s, he wanted out — and luckily, gang leaders gave him permission to leave. But they warned him: “No one will offer you a... Continue Reading →
The Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2018. A brick wall, the first layer of the barrier, encircles most of a city block on an unassuming street in Guatemala City. On the other side is a checkpoint with metal detectors like airport security. Next comes a winding walk flanked by two security guards, and then,... Continue Reading →
The Atlantic, June 2018, Honduras. Edwin Vásquez, a 16-year-old, is learning how to live with fear. One afternoon last fall, as he played soccer on a field near his house in La Rivera Hernández in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, gunfire suddenly rang out, and he barely dodged bullets meant for him. Lurking around the field... Continue Reading →
The Intercept, April 2018. With Cora Currier. En Español aquí. At 6:02 A.M. on August 27, 2017, the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, uploaded a video statement to Twitter declaring the former Colombian judge Iván Velásquez a persona non grata and ordering his expulsion from the country. Velásquez is investigating corruption on behalf of a United Nations-backed commission... Continue Reading →
The Intercept, December 2017. On the night of December 2, 2017, a Honduran woman in the rural province of Olancho was protesting what she saw as a stolen election. The woman, eight months pregnant, stood in the streets in violation of a national curfew, and she screamed alongside a rebellious multitude, “Fuera JOH!” (“Out JOH!”), referring... Continue Reading →
