Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
AWARD DATE: 1998
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 1998
RECIPIENT: Edwin Garcia, Michelle Levander, Ricardo Sandoval
AFFILIATION: The San Jose Mercury News
HONORED WORK: “Lost In Transit”
The authors exposed how Mexican migrant workers in the United States are cheated out of tens of millions of dollars as they send postal money orders and other payments to relatives back home. Abuses by corrupt money changers as well as unfair practices by big money-transfer firms were revealed. Dozens of interviews in the U.S. and Mexico uncovered major legal loopholes and weak regulatory oversight that combine to hurt hardworking Mexicans. The series shed enormous light on an issue that the American press has ignored.
Citations for Excellence:
Laurie Goering
Chicago Tribune
“Issues in South America”
E.A. Torriero
Sun-Sentinel, South Florida
“Hurricane Mitch”