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 The U.S. has indicted Haitian gang ruler Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier — but he and his Viv Ansanm confederation hold the cards in Port-au-Prince as long as they don't face real force. -
Miguel Uribe, 39, was shot three times while giving a campaign speech in Bogota and had been in intensive care since the attack. His family confirmed his death on Monday. -
The Trump administration insists this week that scrapping presidential term limits in El Salvador doesn't make authoritarian President Nayib Bukele a dictator. But critics say Bukele's move is straight from Latin America's autocrat playbook. -
COMMENTARY Donald Trump admires Argentine President Javier Milei — so why is Trump pushing economic policies so divorced from the commonsense approach of what's being called the Milei Miracle? -
Jamaican-born author and filmmaker Max-Arthur Mantle hopes a screen version of his gay coming-of-age novel — controversially titled "Batty Bwoy!" — will help make his homophobic home island LGBTQ-legal. -
Citing police sources, Haitian media report one of Haiti’s violent and powerful gangs was responsible for abducting nine people from the Sainte-Hélène orphanage outside Port-au-Prince. A day earlier, police arrested former Haitian Sen. Nenel Cassy for allegedly sponsoring gangs, which now control almost all of Port-au-Prince. -
COMMENTARY The historic conviction of ex-Colombian President Alvaro Uribe offers his countrymen — including the South Florida diaspora — an opportunity to share blame for their national conflict. -
Detainees at an ICE facility in the Florida Everglades referred to Alligator Alcatraz allege harsh punishments from guards.
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COMMENTARY The real reason President Trump is threatening tariffs in order to quash ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's coup-plot trial? The case is too big a reminder of his own alleged sedition. -
While the new Everglades migrant detention center fends off complaints about its living conditions, some detainees claim guards are also doling out discipline for questioning rules — including standing in the hot Florida sun for extended periods. Officials deny the charge. -
COMMENTARY The gang burning of one of Haiti's most iconic landmarks is more brazen destruction not just of the country — but of Haitians' self-esteem, which President Trump has also assailed. -
The Trump administration insists conditions have improved enough in Honduras and Nicaragua to send migrants protected from deportation back to those countries — but those groups disagree and argue it's wrong to return them after so many years in the U.S.
