Vice President and Head of Global News Gathering Paul Haven announced on Monday that Eduardo Castillo is now the news director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Here is his memo to staff:
I am thrilled to announce that we have named Eduardo Castillo as news director for Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing all formats and both the English- and Spanish-language news services in the region.
Eduardo, 46, will be the first Latino to run the region as news director since the Latin America desk was established in 2005. A graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Eduardo is widely respected within The Associated Press and throughout Latin American journalism circles.
He joined AP in 2003 and quickly established himself as one of the top Spanish-language correspondents in the region, a tireless reporter who asks the tough questions and an elegant writer bringing context to even the most complex stories. Over those years, Eduardo was a key part of almost every important story in the region, including papal visits, hurricanes, the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Mexico’s drug war and the brief détente between Cuba and the United States.
In 2006 he won the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Breaking News award for his Spanish-language coverage of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on Latinos and Latin American immigrants in the U.S.
In 2015, Eduardo became acting bureau chief for Mexico and Central America, and was a lead reporter on the award-winning project “The Other Disappeared,” a multi-format series about hundreds of kidnap victims who vanished in southern Mexico.
Eduardo joined the Latin America and Caribbean leadership team in 2016, serving as deputy news director for the region. Since 2019, he’s been the AP’s Spanish News Director, but at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic Eduardo also started supervising the region’s English text report.
Since 2020, Eduardo has been co-leading the region along with Bogota-based Deputy Director Ricardo Mazalan and Asuncion-based Deputy Director Paul Byrne. Ricardo and Paul will continue on in those roles. I want to thank them for their dedication and excellent leadership through the pandemic. I know the collaboration the three of them established will continue under Eduardo.
Please join me in congratulating Eduardo and wishing him every success in this important role.
Best,
Paul
