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 30 years — including for Newsweek as its Mexico City bureau chief and for Time as its Latin America and Miami bureau chief — from the end of Central America's civil wars to the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations. He has interviewed more than 20 heads of state.
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 When U.S. officials, Republican or Democrat, honor only Latin American journalism that promotes their political agendas in the region, it spoils U.S. credibility in that region.
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The former diplomat is the Venezuelan opposition's new candidate against Nicolás Maduro. Venezuelan exiles feel cautiously optimistic about his chances. “He’s a very level-headed person — a consensus-builder," said one expat who worked closely with him in government.
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Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s regime is growing “more fierce” in protecting its power and the decade-long exodus of Venezuelans leaving the country will likely intensify following upcoming July 28 elections, says Beatriz Olavarria, a longtime Venezuelan exile activist in South Florida.
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COMMENTARY The Biden Administration has decided to re-impose U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela — but either way, it looks like the dictatorship will have its way for now.
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The famed civil rights attorney said the police-involved shooting last month of Donald Armstrong is yet another disturbing instance when police officers fail to handle mental health-related emergency calls and routinely impose criminal charges to justify using lethal force
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Though it could take years to wrest Haiti from violent gang rule, many Haitians — including in the private sector — insist the country's "structural violence" has to go, too.
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COMMENTARY It's Pan American Week — but there's not a whole lot to celebrate in the Americas these days. Maybe the Americas Act can rekindle some hemispheric purpose.
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Haiti's violent and powerful gangs are demanding political clout — and as government leaders delay a transitional government, Haitian suffering deepens.
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COMMENTARY If we keep the sanctions screws on Cuba — or soften them — shouldn't we do the same for Venezuela? It's not that simple — for Biden or the rest of us.
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Miami-based YouTube influencer Oscar Alejandro Perez made a joke that got him arrested in Venezuela — a reminder, say expats, of the "roulette" risks of going there.
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With Haiti's main airport still closed, Haitians in South Florida can only watch as gangs that control Port-au-Prince violently tear through their families' neighborhoods.
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COMMENTARY Deeper Cuban suffering has sparked new protests — but don't expect the regime or exiles to soften their stances in ways that might actually ease that misery.