Gabriel García Márquez fought for his whole life against the various threats to democracy in Latin America, but today journalists just like him have to face political and legal persecution, even imp...
Laura Ardila
Laura Ardila is a freelance journalist from the Colombian Caribbean, who has been a journalist for 21 years. She has specialized in investigating political mafias and electoral corruption, and her stories are a reference for understanding how power works in her country. She is the author of the book La Costa Nostra (Rey Naranjo, 2023), the unauthorized history of the Char family, Colombia's most powerful political clan, which became a bestseller in 2023. She is a columnist for the newspaper El Espectador and currently lives in Spain, as member of a program for at-risk Latin American journalists. She is a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). She has won five national journalism awards and was a finalist for the Gabo Prize (in a team application) in 2020. She is the only Colombian woman journalist to be recognized twice (in 2017 and 2023) as Journalist of the Year at the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize.
Events IJF 2025