Journalist and fact-checker, The New Yorker
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 →
The Intercept, Diciembre 2019. In English here. Leia em português. Con Chiara Eisner. Ya pasaron más de tres años desde que Berta Cáceres fue asesinada en su casa en Honduras. Cáceres era una activista de 44 años, madre y una celebridad mundial —recibió el Premio Ambiental Goldman en el año 2015 por dirigir una campaña... 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 2004,... Continue Reading →
The Verge, May 2019. En español en Periodistas de a Pie. Photography by Ximena Natera, with reporting support from Miguel Ángel León Carmona. Mexico’s drug war has left tens of thousands of casualties in secret graves. Now, the mothers of the missing are digging them up, armed with iron rods and quadcopter drones. Roberto Carlos... Continue Reading →
A March 2019 presentation at the University of Notre Dame, as part of its conference, "Belonging: The Church of Romero and Gangs." The subject of the panel on which I spoke alongside anthropologist Juan José Martinez was, "Gangs in El Salvador as a transnational form of belonging." A main focus of my reporting in recent... 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 →
Danielle Mackey 