Left to right: Eduardo Castillo, Christopher Sherman and Dario Lopez-Mills.
Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
AWARD YEAR: 2015
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 2015
RECIPIENTS: Eduardo Castillo, Christopher Sherman and Dario Lopez-Mills
AFFILIATION: The Associated Press
HONORED WORK: “Thousands of Mexican Families Mourn the ‘Other Disappeared’”
This powerful project examined the most urgent issue confronting Mexico and Latin America: impunity. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Sherman used the notorious case of the abduction of 42 students in Iguala, Mexico, as the premise for a larger, more ambitious story about the pain and despair of a society in which 26,000 people have gone missing. The reporters explored a landscape of mafias, violence and corruption with skill, courage and empathy. The comprehensive series painted vivid human portraits: a cartel killer discussing his trade with grim nonchalance; the ordeal of a grandmother and her family in the labyrinth of the kidnapping industry; the dogged, dignified survivors who scour the mountains searching for the clandestine graves of missing loved ones. The result was a moving tale about Mexico’s national nightmare—and a stern indictment of a state that seems alternately complicit, overwhelmed or indifferent.
“Thousands of Mexican Families Mourn the ‘Other Disappeared'” >>
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