A man who is wearing a grey cap smiles at the camera.

Jorge Valencia

Reporter

Jorge Valencia is the lead Latin America correspondent for The World.

Prior to joining the program in 2020, Jorge served as Mexico City-based correspondent for Arizona public radio station KJZZ-FM, covering politics, economics and migration in Mexico. Jorge previously covered state government and politics for North Carolina Public Radio. And before that, he began his career covering crime at the Roanoke Times in southwest Virginia.

Jorge, who grew up in downtown Bogotá, Colombia, and the suburbs of Washington, DC, graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He is based in Boston.

French Chilean rapper's new track criticizes politicians' apathy over coronavirus

The World

August 04, 2020

Ana Tijoux's new song “Pa Qué?” drew inspiration from statements early into the pandemic from politicians like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Conflict

Embattled Bolivian mayor refuses to step down amid political crisis: ‘Quitting would be a betrayal’

The World

July 31, 2020

Patricia Arce, mayor of the Bolivian city of Vinto, has operated under a cloak of fear since November, when a mob attacked her in the street and demanded her resignation in the wake of postelection clashes. But she has held on to her role amid rising human rights abuses under the interim national government.

Conflict & Justice

In Mexico, the unending drug war takes its toll with thousands of disappearances

The World

July 21, 2020

A report issued on July 14 by Mexico’s National Search Commission said 73,218 people have been confirmed missing since 1964, and almost all of them — 71,678 — since 2006 when organized crime and drug-trafficking violence in the country began to increase.

Bogotá tries ‘staggered quarantine’ to slow coronavirus spread

The World

July 16, 2020

Officials in Bogotá, Colombia are ordering residents in some boroughs to stay in their homes for two-week intervals in hopes that staggering a shutdown across swaths of the city will allow most economic activity to continue while slowing the rate of coronavirus infections.

Conflict & Justice

Black Lives Matter protests renew parallel debates in Brazil, Colombia

The World

June 15, 2020

Across the Americas, police violence disproportionately targets young black men. The protests sparked by George Floyd's death in Minneapolis have shined a new light on police brutality in South America.

COVID-19: The latest from The World

Coronavirus spread threatens Colombia's Amazonian Indigenous communities

The World

May 29, 2020

Indigenous communities in Colombia's Amazon region lack medical personnel and infrastructure to handle a pandemic. Some worry the spread of the coronavirus could wipe out entire ethnic groups.

COVID-19: The latest from The World

In Latin America, coronavirus slams an economy already in dire straits

The World

May 26, 2020

Bank of America projects that the region’s economy will shrink by almost 7% this year.

Immigration

Guatemalans deported from US shunned at home over coronavirus fears

The World

May 21, 2020

At least 115 people returned to Guatemala by the US have tested positive for the coronavirus upon arrival. Deportees are being shunned, threatened or chased away by neighbors who fear they are bringing back the virus with them.

Business, Economics and Jobs

Colombian airlines face controversy over loans to survive pandemic crisis

The World

May 18, 2020

Governments worldwide — from Singapore to the Netherlands and the US — have devoted more than $85 billion to prop up airlines during the coronavirus pandemic. But airlines' requests for aid are controversial in less rich Latin American economies, where millions live in poverty and public health systems are ill-equipped to respond to a large-scale health crisis.

Migration

'We're dead here': Migrants stranded in Panama rainforest amid coronavirus

The World

April 30, 2020

With borders closed and entire countries on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, some 2,000 migrants — many of them children under age 5 — have been detained for months in Panama, near the rainforest separating South and Central America.

Jorge Valencia

Recent Stories

French Chilean rapper's new track criticizes politicians' apathy over coronavirus

Embattled Bolivian mayor refuses to step down amid political crisis: ‘Quitting would be a betrayal’

In Mexico, the unending drug war takes its toll with thousands of disappearances

Bogotá tries ‘staggered quarantine’ to slow coronavirus spread

Black Lives Matter protests renew parallel debates in Brazil, Colombia

Coronavirus spread threatens Colombia's Amazonian Indigenous communities

In Latin America, coronavirus slams an economy already in dire straits

Guatemalans deported from US shunned at home over coronavirus fears

Colombian airlines face controversy over loans to survive pandemic crisis

'We're dead here': Migrants stranded in Panama rainforest amid coronavirus

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