Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
NPR News and member station WLRN(FM) in Miami will expand coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean by opening of an NPR bureau in Brazil and adding a WLRN Americas correspondent based in Miami.
Since 2003, WLRN and The Miami Herald have shared a single newsroom, the only such arrangement in the country. Now, WLRN has expanded its partnership with The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald to include coordinated coverage of the region. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro will become NPR’s South America correspondent based in São Paulo; Tim Padgett, former Latin America bureau chief for Time magazine, joins WLRN.
The NPR and WLRN collaboration will dedicate seven reporters and three editors to coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Brazil’s growing global significance makes that country the perfect base for us,” said NPR Senior Vice President of News Margaret Low Smith. “With that country’s rich culture, environmental wealth, vast agricultural output and massive oil reserves, there will be no shortage of important and fascinating stories to tell.”
“With Miami being the gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, and the growing influence of Hispanics in the U.S., this is a natural collaboration for WLRN,” said WLRN General Manager John Labonia. “From Brazilians buying up real estate to Haitian earthquake survivors in our schools, what happens in Latin America and the Caribbean has a profound effect on South Florida, and it’s our mission to cover that.”
Garcia-Navarro was previously based in NPR’s Jerusalem bureau and was one of the first reporters to enter Libya after the 2011 uprising began. She has also served as NPR’s Baghdad bureau chief and Mexico City correspondent.
Padgett joins WLRN after two decades covering Latin America for Time and Newsweek, reporting on Mexico’s democratization and drug war, as well as the rise of leaders including Brazil’s Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
