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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Announcing a new WLRN News series, evaluating a key plank of the Biden administration's immigration agenda — one year later. -
COMMENTARY Refusing to condemn Hamas terrorism — and calling Israel "Nazis" — leaves Colombian President Gustavo Petro with little statesman credibility at home as well. -
While Venezuela remains South America's worst economic and political catastrophe, its people insist there's little the U.S. can do to deter them from making the journey here. -
COMMENTARY Pope Francis has suggested the church can bless same-sex unions — a reconsideration of Catholic teaching that reflects gay marriage's rise in Latin America. -
WLRN's Americas Editor Tim Padgett speaks with Cuba's Foreign Relations Vice-Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, about why the communist island is allowing more economic freedom — but not political liberalization. -
COMMENTARY Borders matter — and liberals who embrace open-border ideology simply undermine the compassionate cause of migrant rights they claim to champion. -
COMMENTARY The troubles of U.S. and Colombian presidential sons involve the scourges of drug supply and demand — and could be useful to new drug-war strategies. -
As more Cubans enter the U.S. over the southern border, more are seeking asylum — but an immigration panel has ruled that disqualifies them from fast-track residence. -
George Platt of Fort Lauderdale witnessed the bloody coup that started Augusto Pinochet's long, brutal dictatorship in Chile 50 years ago, on Sept. 11, 1973. -
COMMENTARY It's fitting that the Proud Boys leader has been sentenced for sedition just as the 50th anniversary of Pinochet's right-wing death squad coup approaches. -
Spain's current sexual harassment scandal is just the latest to darken international women's soccer — including an especially disturbing case that's re-opened in Haiti. -
Amid growing concern about Colombian President Gustavo Petro's absence at events and meetings, his brother has revealed both men struggle with an autistic condition.
