Contracorriente, Univision Investigative Unit and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), November 2020. With Jennifer Ávila. Disponible en español. An environmental conflict marked by violence is raging in Guapinol, Honduras, where local inhabitants resist an iron oxide mine in a national park. This cross-border journalism alliance* has uncovered that the Nucor Corporation, the chief... Continue Reading →
El Salvador’s Security Smoke Screens
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 →
En Honduras y Miami, el fraude financiero de la pandemia // Pandemic financial fraud
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 →
Abusive policing from Chicago to El Salvador
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 Criminal Age // Tiempo de crímenes
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 →
Leaving the Battlefield
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 →
Historic shift in U.S. policy divides federal agencies and Trump administration over how to address gang violence
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 →
Deported into a Nightmare
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 Rise of the Net Center: Anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala vs. an army of trolls
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 →
El Salvador’s “iron fist” crackdown on gangs: A lethal policy with US origins
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 →