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Jorge Valencia

Reporter

The World

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

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 Mexico City.

a woman near a banner

Mexico’s abortion laws have become more accessible

Abortion

Mexico has slowly made reproductive health services more accessible over the last 20 years.

Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada. 

Mexican crooner converts heartbreak into joy — and music

Music
A Haitian vendor

Thousands of Haitians trying to reach the US are in limbo in Tapachula in southern Mexico

Migration
Honduran migrants Bianca Emerita Galvan, 22, left, and Dani Omar Suazo, 21, holding their son 1-year-old sone Daniel Emir, arrive at El Ceibo, Guatemala, Aug. 12, 2021, after being deported by air from the US to Mexico and then shipped into Guatemala by l

Mexico expels Central American migrants to rural Guatemala

Immigration
Demonstrators shout their solidarity with the Cuban people against the communist government, Thursday, July 15, 2021, in Hialeah, Florida. Hialeah has the greatest concentration of Cuban exiles in the US.

‘Homeland and life’: The chant to Cuba’s anti-government protests

Protest
People march in support of presidential candidate Pedro Castillo weeks after the presidential runoff election, in Lima, Peru, June 26, 2021. With all the votes tallied from the June 6th presidential runoff, Castillo is ahead of his rival candidate Keiko F

Peru’s likely next president is popular with Indigenous voters. It’s made him a target for hate speech.

Peru’s closely contested presidential election exposes a long-standing but rarely acknowledged problem in the country — a legacy of marginalizing Indigenous people, who account for more than 26% of the population.

A nurse shows an elderly man a syringe prepared with a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, before he is inoculated at the Americas Cultural Center in Ecatepec, Mexico, April 3, 2021.

Thousands of medical workers left behind in Mexico’s vaccination program 

COVID-19

As governments the world over prioritize medical workers for vaccines, thousands in Mexico’s private health care sector say they’re being passed over.

Free Peru party presidential candidate Pedro Castillo, from left, daughter Alondra, son Arnold and wife Lilia Paredes, pray before eating breakfast, in their home in Chugur, Peru, April 16, 2021. Castillo, a rural teacher, who has proposed rewriting Peru'

Peru polarized by two social conservatives in presidential runoff

Elections

The two will go head-to-head in a second round of voting on June 6, with a majority of voters disappointed in their options.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez waves upon his arrival to an air base to receive a shipment of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine via the COVAX program, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 13, 2021.

Honduras and other countries at the ‘back of the line’ in global vaccine distribution

COVID-19

In Honduras and in low-income countries across the world, the vaccination process is riddled with uncertainty.

Residents of the Iztacalco borough follow a long, snaking line to receive doses of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, during a mass vaccination campaign for Mexicans over age 60, at the Advanced School for Physical Education, in Mexico City, Feb. 24,

Russia expands ‘soft power’ in Latin America with Sputnik vaccine

COVID-19

For Russia, the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is an opportunity to appeal to faraway governments and citizens.