Tim Padgett
Americas EditorTim Padgett is the Americas Editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida.
Padgett has reported on Latin America for more than 35 years — including for Newsweek as its Mexico City bureau chief and for Time as its Latin America and Miami bureau chief — and he has interviewed more than 20 heads of state, from Mexico to Brazil.
In 2005, Padgett received Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for his body of work in Latin America. In 2016 he won a national Edward R. Murrow award for the radio series "The Migration Maze," about the brutal causes of — and potential solutions to — Central American migration.
Padgett is an Indiana native and a graduate of Wabash College. He received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School and studied in Caracas, Venezuela, at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. He has been an adult literacy volunteer and is a member of the Catholic poverty aid organization St. Vincent de Paul.
Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org
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COMMENTARY Sending soldiers into the drug war is more performative than productive — and takes a heavier human toll than the law enforcement we should be promoting in Latin America does. -
Ex-TV anchor Eliott Rodriguez wins the Democratic nod in Florida's 27th — but can he unseat Salazar?With a decided name-recognition advantage over his opponent, former Miami TV news anchorman Eliott Rodriguez won the Democratic nomination in Florida's 27th congressional district — and could present the Republican incumbent, three-term Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, with her first serious challenge in November. -
COMMENTARY Democratic Socialists will complain if right-wing President Trump tries to block their election in America — but they rarely if ever denounce left-wing election theft in Latin America. -
A little over a month after earthquakes devastated neighboring Venezuela, western Colombia is now reeling from a powerful quake that struck Monday morning. For South Florida, nonprofits like Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) in Doral are again the focus of relief aid donations. -
A rare Haiti poll finds few want gang amnesty — but most want better schools to prevent future gangsA new survey, which comes on what may be the eve of mass deportations back to Haiti, finds Haitians see the defeat of gang rule as their priority — but while they reject amnesty for gang members, they say the restoration of security has to happen alongside meaningful investment in education and other institutions to halt Haiti's gang cycle. -
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara spent five years behind bars in Cuba for taking part in — and using his art to help motivate — mass anti-regime protests there in July of 2021. He was released last month and sent to exile in Miami. But several conservative Cuban social media influencers now publicly question whether Otero genuinely suffered as a political prisoner. -
COMMENTARY By imitating Donald Trump's obsession with pushing baseless claims of electoral fraud, leftist Colombian leader Gustavo Petro has put the finishing touch on his dysfunctional presidency. -
Unlike Hispanics elsewhere, Florida's are sticking with President Trump, largely because he and his party bond with right-wing Latin American leaders like Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella, who takes office on Friday — but brings his own controversial baggage. -
Under the Trump administration's tacit oversight, Venezuela's authoritarian regime and democratic opposition start negotiations on Saturday in Caracas to hammer out agreements leading to new elections. But could the timeline last longer than Trump's presidency? -
COMMENTARY In this season of Odyssey-mania, it's hard to ignore the frustrated Homeric wanderings of Venezuelan democracy leader María Corina Machado — and the pseudo-god who's decreeing them. -
Rights organizations and civic leaders inside Haiti, warn the Trump administration's plans for Haitian TPS deportations risk violating an international law principle that prohibits forcing refugees back to a place where they're likely to be harmed if not killed. -
COMMENTARY Did a Mexican tourist run to his death in Florida this month because he feared U.S. immigration enforcement has become — by design — as predatory as law enforcement back in Mexico?
