Journalist and fact-checker, The New Yorker
Lux Magazine, No. 1. En español en Alharaca. Art by Sofía Clausse. This reporting was supported by a grant from the Fund for Constitutional Government. Beginning in the summer of 2015, millions of women filled the streets of Latin America in a series of marches united by a hashtag at once a slogan and a... Continue Reading →
NACLA and Taylor & Francis Online, November 2020. With Pamela Ruiz. This is an excerpt; complete copies are available at either publisher. My reporting for this piece was thanks to a grant from The Fund for Constitutional Government. In April 2020, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele reacted to a wave of murders by ordering prison officials... 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 →
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 Atlantic, June 2018. Photos at The Atlantic by Danielle Villasana. This reporting was supported by the International Women's Media Foundation. 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,... Continue Reading →
World Politics Review, Feb 2018. Editor’s Note: In July 2019, this story received an Honorable Mention by the National Press Club for the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence, which recognizes excellence in reporting on diplomatic and foreign policy issues. Late one morning in the fall of 2016, police officers handcuffed a group of middle... Continue Reading →
The Intercept, November 2017. With Cora Currier. The State Department announced Wednesday evening the abrupt cancellation of a program that gave youth fleeing violence in Central America the chance to apply for asylum and join their families in the United States. While the Trump administration had already narrowed the scope of the Obama-era initiative and indicated it would... Continue Reading →
The RiverFront Times, February 2015. A handcuffed student drowned in custody of the Missouri Highway Patrol. One witness seeks justice with a rogue investigation. Larry Moreau and his family were cruising the Lake of the Ozarks on a sunny Saturday last May when they noticed a Missouri Highway Patrol boat race past them. Moreau, an engineer from nearby Jefferson... Continue Reading →
Danielle Mackey 