EL PAÍS wins the Gabo Award for the best coverage with a series of reports on the southern border of Mexico

The series of reports

Southern border.

The unknown border of America,

carried out by journalists from EL PAÍS América in alliance with reporters from

El Faro

newspaper

, from El Salvador, has been recognized this Thursday with the Gabo Award for the best coverage, awarded by the García Márquez Foundation founded by the writer in 1995. The jury, made up of María Elvira Samper (Colombia), Liza Gross (Argentina) and Rosental Alves (Brazil), recognized the six reports for their “high bill” and “revealing the dramatic complexity of the southern border of Mexico” .

The work, which was imposed among the 344 pieces nominated in this edition of the Gabo Prize for this category, “portrays a territory that moves a large part of the drug that reaches the United States and through which thousands of Central Americans flee from the poverty or violence in their countries of origin ”.

The juries unanimously chose the winner "for going beyond the traditional journalistic coverage of cartels or criminal groups that usually remains in official statements and figures."

“On the contrary, this long-term six-part series, by more than 20 journalists, puts a face and heart to the communities that live and work in a forgotten region.

They do it with a skillful combination of revealing texts, videos, photographs and infographics ”, highlights the ruling.

The award, delivered in a virtual ceremony, also recognizes "the journalistic courage of

Frontera Sur,

as it is a risky adventure that plunges into a violent, porous and extensive territory, where illegal economies converge with traditional subsistence ones."

"All eyes were on the northern border with the arrival of Donald Trump and we decided to focus our attention on the southern border," said Javier Lafuente, deputy director of EL PAÍS América and coordinator of the project.

Another work published in Planeta Futuro, from EL PAÍS has won the Image category.

It is a series of multimedia reports coordinated by Francesc Badia i Dalmases and Pablo Albarenga that combines

storytelling

in video and photography with texts to present stories related to the environmental crisis in the Amazon.

According to the jury,

Defensores de la selva

is “an exceptional journalistic product that seeks to land the climate crisis in the day-to-day lives of young people who play a role, until now scarcely documented and recognized, in the defense and conservation of the Amazon in Brazil and Ecuador".

The best text of this edition of the Gabo Awards is another collaborative work published in InfoAmazonia,

The Miami Herald,

Runrun.es,

De Correspondent

and

El Correo del Caroní.

The investigation

Venezuela, two smugglers paradise

explora

mining conflicts, gold trafficking and illicit cash flows through data analysis and interviews with sources from state institutions, gold traffickers in the Caribbean and Venezuelan refugees who are used as gold carriers and actors involved in the trade.

Pilar del Río highlighted the work as a member of the jury to be "done with a lot of encouragement."

More than 1,400 works were nominated this year for the Gabo Awards and, unlike previous editions, the delivery ceremony was not in Medellín, but was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Its essence remains, however, intact and this has been highlighted by the director of the García Márquez Foundation, Jaime Abello Bandi.

"The Gabo Award and the Gabo Festival is inspired by the legacy of Gabriel García Márquez and the high purpose of sharing in all citizens the fundamental concerns for a journalism that aims at excellence, ethical coherence and innovation."