Alberto Arce
AWARD DATE: 2012
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 2012
AWARD RECIPIENT: Alberto Arce
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: Associated Press
AWARD HONORED WORK: Honduras
One of the most violent countries in the world receives scant media coverage. But Alberto Arce of the Associated Press has displayed a combination of courage, strong reporting and a flair for writing to explain life in Honduras — how this is a country where gangs extort cash from homeowners, where inmates rule its deadly prisons and where the charities of political candidates give away free coffins. Honduras is struggling to maintain political stability three years after its former president was run out of office at gunpoint. Arce goes beyond the standard wire service reporting. His “Letter from Honduras” colorfully recounts difficult life inside the impoverished and dangerous Central American nation. Readers are lured into one story on a father’s quest for justice after his son was killed, allegedly by military officers, with the following lead: “In a capital so dangerous that only the “walking dead” are said to venture out after dark, nothing could draw an obedient son from the safety of his parents’ suburban home into the deserted night. Nothing, that is, but a girl.”
Citation for Excellence:
Nick Miroff and William Booth
The Washington Post
Mexico’s Middle Class