2026 Maria Moors Cabot Prize Winners

The Cabot Prizes honor journalists and news organizations for career excellence and coverage of the Western Hemisphere that furthers inter-American understanding. Godfrey Lowell Cabot of Boston founded the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes as a memorial to his wife in 1938. They are the oldest international journalism awards.

Each Cabot Prize winner will receive a gold medal and a $5,000 honorarium. The 2026 Cabot Prize winners and Special Citation recipients will be celebrated at Columbia University on Thursday, October 8.

“This year, the Cabot Jury selected a truly remarkable group of journalists with exceptional range and depth in their reporting on the Americas," said Cabot Jury Chair Rosental Alves. “Their careers set a standard for journalists everywhere; investigations that have had an impact; writing that illuminates our world; and courage that inspires us at this challenging time for the press.”

2026 Maria Moors Cabot Prizes Winners:

Daniel Coronell, Journalist, Colombia and the United States

Over four decades, Daniel Coronell has built an extraordinary journalism career as a reporter, media director, opinion columnist, founder and innovator in Colombia and the United States. Coronell is widely recognized for his investigative reporting on political violence, human rights violations, and public and private corruption committed by those in positions of power. He has also helped strengthen news and information services for Latinos living in the United States.

Coronell’s reporting has led to the removal from office or imprisonment of high-ranking Colombian government officials. For his practice of independent journalism, he has been the target of persecution and death threats against both himself and his family, forcing him into exile to protect his safety and in order to continue practicing journalism freely. He has also reported on abuses against members of the Hispanic community in the United States.

Daniel Coronell’s work at media outlets including Noticias Uno, Semana, Univisión,

Cambio, Los Danieles, Caracol Radio, and W Radio has not only deepened understanding across the Americas through exceptional journalism, but has also set a new standard by establishing accountability and the defense of truth at all costs in both principle and practice. He has also taught journalism at the universities of Los Andes, Javeriana, and Externado in Colombia.

Coronell’s career embodies professional rigor, courage, and bravery by exercising independence, holding power to account, and in defending freedom of the press and freedom of expression throughout the Americas.

For his exemplary journalistic career and for the example and leadership he embodies throughout the Americas, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize Jury is honored to award Daniel Coronell the Cabot Gold Medal.

Leila Guerriero, Journalist and Author, Argentina

Leila Guerriero has transformed the craft of long-form journalism in the Spanish language over the three decades of her career. Today, she is one of the most influential voices in that hybrid tradition between journalism and literature that is in conversation with the work of global figures such as Elena Poniatowska and Svetlana Alexievich.

Her chronicles and profiles, published in leading media outlets across Latin America, the United States, and Europe, illuminate complex realities shaped by historical memory, inequality, and violence, without ever lapsing into simplification or the stereotypes that so often persist about the region. Her method is unmistakable: extraordinary patience, a meticulous approach to the inner lives of her subjects, and a quality of listening that allows witnesses silenced by history, or by their own restraint, to say what they have never been able to say before.

Guerriero does not retell what we already know; in every narrative she makes a discovery. That is what happens in "El rastro de los huesos," about the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, and in her recent book “La llamada,” which reconstructs the public and intimate keys to repression during the Argentine dictatorship. In “Plano americano,” her profiles trace a living cultural map of the Spanish-speaking world.

Her work as editor of anthologies such as “Los malditos,” “Los malos,” and “Extremas” has expanded the Latin American canon. Since 2002, she has trained generations of chroniclers in workshops and master's programs across the region and Europe. And in an era that prizes speed over understanding, Guerriero insists on pausing, on listening, and on complexity.

For her rigorous, patient, and revelatory journalism, the Maria Moors Cabot Jury is proud to award Leila Guerriero the Cabot Gold Medal.

Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, United States

Kate Linthicum belongs to a long tradition of exceptional Los Angeles Times correspondents, many of whom have won Maria Moors Cabot Prizes over the decades for outstanding coverage of Latin America.

Her stories are well-reported, deeply sourced and beautifully written. They transport readers and capture some of the biggest currents in the region: the rise of populism, erosion of press freedoms and expansion of violent organized crime mafia.

She focuses on the people most affected by these macro stories. During the coronavirus pandemic that set back efforts to combat poverty, she profiled a 12-year-old boy forced to leave school to work in banana groves. Writing about drought in northern Mexico, she focused on a family whose taps had run dry and ranchers whose cows were starving.

Linthicum connects the global and the local in powerful narratives about the impact of the relocation of manufacturing production from the United States to Mexico. A piece on gun trafficking from the United States included this observation from a vigilante leader near Acapulco. “We kill each other,” he said. “And you send the bullets.”

She has covered protests across the region and examined the economic and social conditions that fueled the rise of authoritarian leaders including Nayib Bukele, Jair Bolsonaro and Daniel Ortega. At the same time, her stories celebrate Latin America’s music and popular culture, such as this: “If there is a world capital of public displays of affection, it could be Mexico City in the spring.”

For her outstanding coverage of Latin America and her contributions to inter-American understanding, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize Jury is proud to honor Kate Linthicum with the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal.

Luz Mely Reyes, Efecto Cocuyo, Venezuela

Luz Mely Reyes is one of the most accomplished Venezuelan journalists of recent decades. What sets her work apart is not only its consistency or courage—qualities she shares with many colleagues working under adverse conditions—but something harder to define: an ability to read complex situations and capture, with precision and empathy, the human dimension of the people at their center.

This is evident in her coverage of Chavismo, where she goes beyond political analysis to trace how decisions made by those in power affect people's everyday lives. It is also visible in her reporting on Venezuelan migration to the United States, and in opinion pieces such as “Venezuela, the Testing Ground for the Trump Corollary,” published in El País, where she navigates geopolitics like a chessboard without losing sight of the human cost of those moves.

Her ambitious feature “You Have to Leave” is a layered narrative that shows how the regime systematically pushed some of the country’s most important journalists out of the public sphere as a precise mechanism for restricting freedom of expression. After years of threats in retaliation for her work, she too was forced into exile in 2023.

Her role as a media entrepreneur also deserves recognition. In 2015, together with Laura Weffer and Josefina Ruggiero, she founded Efecto Cocuyo, one of the few digital news outlets that continued operating inside Venezuela with its own newsroom, led by brave and talented journalists on the ground there.

For her journalistic excellence, editorial vision, a willingness to innovate, and an uncompromising commitment to truth and to Venezuela, the jury is proud to honor Luz Mely Reyes with the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal.

2026 Maria Moors Cabot Prize Special Citations

Jan Martínez Ahrens, El País, Spain

Jan Martínez Ahrens is a singular figure in today’s journalism: someone who understands the craft in its full dimension, as a reporter, editor, and newsroom leader. He has spent decades traveling across Latin America covering power, violence, and the region’s fractures, first as El País correspondent in Mexico City and Washington, and later as one of the architects of the newspaper’s continental expansion. As director of the Americas edition, he helped turn El País into a truly pan-Latin American newsroom, with editions for Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and the United States, in both English and Spanish.

As a reporter, Ahrens turned his sensitive, and yet rigorous, attention to some of the most important and defining events in the region, such as the assassination of Honduran activist Beta Cáceres, the disappearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa, and the reigning impunity of the narco-inflicted violence in Mexico.

His style is rigorously matter-of-fact, rooted in the most exacting school of reporting. Yet the narrative texture of his work places him unusually close to the great Latin American tradition of the crónica: stories richly reported–at times poetic and cinematographic–that bridge impossibly distant worlds: the halls of power and the homes of the grieving.

Currently the editor-in-chief of El País, Martínez Ahrens understands that journalism, at its most necessary, is not the mere recording of events but an act of witness that demands moral clarity and craft.

For his commitment to sustaining and expanding journalism in the region, training and staffing its newsrooms with a majority of local journalists in a time when local news outlets are closing their doors, and his own distinguished work, the jury awards him a 2026 Maria Moors Cabot Special Citation.

David Brooks, La Jornada, Mexico and the United States

For more than 30 years, David Brooks has explained the United States to readers in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Since 1992, as U.S. bureau chief and correspondent for the Mexican national daily newspaper La Jornada, he has covered a wide range of issues and the complex and often tumultuous binational relationship. Brooks' reporting provides valuable context and analysis that demonstrates a deep understanding of how policy impacts everyday people on both sides of the border.

His coverage of the vast Mexico within the U.S. focuses on immigrants as economic and political protagonists rather than victims. He has also traveled the U.S.- Mexico border for in-depth reporting including stories focused on the detention of children and families, human rights violations and the root causes of migration. One top immigration correspondent said he considers Brooks “the gold standard”.

Brooks’ column “American Curios” offers a witty take on news events, policy, and culture from the perspective of a journalist with institutional knowledge. But his insightful reporting is also informed by lived experience and a family history in both the U.S and Mexico.

In its U.S. coverage, La Jornada attempts to dismantle the stereotype of “the gringo” by reporting on the tensions and struggles not only among the elite, but among grassroots forces and in communities across American society, and the commonalities shared with Latin Americans.

At a time when many immigrants are portrayed by politicians as criminals and the U.S.- Mexico relationship is fraught, David Brooks’ reporting is essential. For his decades fostering inter-American understanding, David Brooks has earned a Special Citation from the Maria Moors Cabot Jury.

Ricardo Trotti, Inter American Press Association, United States

A journalist originally from Argentina and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Ricardo Trotti dedicated 31 years to leadership roles within the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), an organization founded in 1942 by newspaper editors and publishers from across the Americas. Since retiring as IAPA’s executive director, he has continued his work as a consultant on issues related to press freedom and the resilience of news organizations throughout the hemisphere.

Trotti spearheaded numerous initiatives at the IAPA, including the multi-year Impunity Project, which investigated the murders of journalists in Latin America that went unpunished, leading to 29 cases being brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. As violence against journalists continues to plague the region, Trotti continues to work with the IAPA to investigate attacks and killings, advocate for justice, and develop mechanisms to protect media workers.

In addition to his leadership at the IAPA, Trotti served as a journalist for El Nuevo Herald in Miami and as editor-in-chief of El Liberal in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Fake News: Threat to Democracy and Unpunished Crimes Against Journalists.

While at the IAPA, he edited a trade publication covering the newspaper industry and coordinated and edited the association’s semiannual reports assessing the state of press freedom in 24 countries across the Americas. For his outstanding contributions to press freedom and inter-American understanding, the Maria Moors Cabot Jury honors Ricardo Trotti with a Special Citation.

Members of the Cabot Prize Jury in 2026:

Jury Chair Rosental Alves, Knight Chair in International Journalism, University of Texas, Austin; Hugo Alconada Mon, investigative journalist, La Nación (Argentina); Diana Enríquez, Phd, technology strategist and UX designer; Carlos Fernando Chamorro, founder and editor, Confidencial (Nicaragua); Angela Kocherga, KTEP news director who also reports in the field on border issues including migration, the border security buildup, binational health, and trade; Marjorie Miller, administrator, Pulitzer Prizes, Columbia University; Elena Cabral, assistant dean, academic and international programs at Columbia Journalism School; Boris Muñoz, Venezuelan-American journalist, author and editor; Ginger Thompson, managing editor, ProPublica; Adriana Zehbrauskas, documentary photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona; Abi Wright, executive director of Professional Prizes and Programs at Columbia Journalism School.