On Wednesday, July 10, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism awarded El Faro journalist Carlos Martínez the Maria Moors Cabot Prize —one of the oldest distinctions in journalism, recognizing outstanding reporting in the Americas since 1938— and honored Martínez as “one of the leading reporters in the Western Hemisphere.”
“Martínez has brought field experience, courage, and a strong narrative voice to his reporting including short texts, books, and documentaries, among other formats,” wrote the jury. “Today, his coverage of the expansion of gang activity is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand how criminal networks are devastating Central America, and how their influence is spreading across Mexico and the United States.”
Martínez is the third member of El Faro to receive the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, following co-founder and editor-in-chief Carlos Dada in 2011 and current executive editor Óscar Martínez in 2016. Three other Salvadorans previously won this prize.
This year, Columbia University also awarded the Cabot Prize to Brazilian documentary photographer Lalo de Almeida, former National Public Radio correspondent John Otis of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and New York Times reporter Frances Robles. The jury awarded special citations to regional investigative outlet InSight Crime and to Laura Zommer of Argentine non-profit digital fact-checking organization Chequeado.
“It is extraordinary for a Latin American news outlet to have won three Cabot awards,” said Dada. “While we are of course proud of this distinction, it commits us to continue working with the same rigor and high editorial standards. But today El Faro celebrates.”
Martínez has spent more than a decade investigating violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. He has authored every article published by El Faro since 2012 revealing negotiations between governments, political parties, and gangs. He is the author of “Juntos, todos juntos”, a Spanish-language book chronicling the crossing of the first caravan of Central American migrants through Mexico toward the United States.
The winners of the 2024 Cabot Prize and recipients of special citations will be celebrated on October 8 at Columbia University’s Low Library.
“This is an enormous honor and responsibility that makes you think back on your career, the paths that have brought you here, and, above all, the road ahead to live up to this award,” said Martínez. The Prize, he added, is an homage to “the way that we journalists from Central America have hewed to our mandate in times in which democracy, the natural habitat of journalism, is being dismantled by leaps and bounds.”
