Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
AWARD YEAR: 2008
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 2008
RECIPIENT: Alma Guillermoprieto
AFFILIATION: The New Yorker
HONORED WORK: “Days of the Dead: The New Narcocultura”
Alma Guillermoprieto went beyond the headline stories to give us a startlingly clear portrait of the roots of the “narcocultura” which has so convulsed Mexico as to raise concerns about a failed state south of the border. The writing is what we have come to expect from Guillermoprieto — elegant and clear. The anecdotes, such as the description of the Holy Death cult and the profile of “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the most brutal traffickers, add new context to our understanding. The overall message of this reporting is unsettling, to say the least. Mexican society is being rent by the new narcocultura and, until this evil is confronted, the bleakness of the country’s future will continue to tear at the United States as well.
Citation for Excellence:
Sara Miller Llana, Matthew Clark
The Christian Science Monitor
“Cuba: Winds of Change”