Gabo Award 2025: Journalism from El Salvador, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico among the winners

Bogotá.- The Gabo Foundation announced this Saturday the winners of the Gabo Award 2025, the most important recognition of journalism in Spanish and Portuguese, during a ceremony held at the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Theater in Bogotá, within the framework of the Gabo Festival and the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the foundation created by Gabriel García Márquez. In its thirteenth edition, the contest received 2,135 applications and selected five winning works in the categories of Text, Image, Photography, Audio and Coverage, all of them valued by a jury of 70 professionals with extensive experience.

The winners by category at the Gabo Awards 2025

Text:
Searching for Mikelson: an apartheid in the Caribbean, by Salvadoran anthropologist and chronicler Juan Martínez d’Aubuisson, published by Redacción Regional and Dromómanos. The report starts from a video where Dominican police officers throw a man from a roof and, after following his trail, documents the structural discrimination towards Haitians and their descendants in the Dominican Republic.

Image:
In the Hot – Stories of a reggaeton warrior, directed by the Cuban Fabien Pisani along with a team of seven filmmakers from Cuba and the United States. The documentary tells the story of the rise of reggaeton in Cuba through the figure of Candyman, an underground artist who became the voice of a generation in the nineties.

Photography:
Yolüja, by the Colombian Fernanda Pineda, published by Baudó Agencia Pública. The photographic series portrays the spiritual and environmental impact of coal mining on the Wayuu people, represented in the mythical figure of Yolüja, a symbol of dispossession and the devastation of their ancestral territory.

Audio:
Humo: Murder and Silence in El Salvador, a podcast narrated by journalist Bryan Avelar and produced by a team of 20 professionals from Revista Factum and Sonoro. The investigation unravels the case of a serial killer and state inaction in the face of violence and disappearances, as well as documenting the censorship and forced exile of journalists in that country.

Coverage:
Rio Grande, the flow of a thousand dead migrants, a transnational investigation by El Universal, The Washington Post and Lighthouse Reports, led by Miriam Ramírez, which reveals the increase in migrant drowning deaths on the border between Mexico and the United States, as a result of militarization and restrictive policies in both countries.

Recognition of Excellence

The Board of Directors of the Gabo Foundation also awarded the Recognition for Excellence of the Gabo Award 2025 to the Argentinian journalist Laura Zommer, director of Chequeado and a reference in fact-checking in the region; to the Brazilian reporter Patrícia Campos Mello, known for her work on disinformation, political violence, and human rights in Brazil; and to the Venezuelan media outlet Armando.info, recognized for its persistence in investigative journalism despite the exile of its members and state persecution.

Awards and activities

Each winner received 35 million Colombian pesos, the sculpture “Gabriel” created by the artist Antonio Caro and a diploma illustrated by Daniel Liévano. The festival will continue until Sunday, July 27th with the screening of the documentary En la caliente and discussions with the winners, including a special live edition of the podcast A fondo with María Jimena Duzán and the participation of Bryan Avelar. The talk “Truth under threat” will also be held, with Laura Zommer, Patrícia Campos Mello and members of Armando.info, to reflect on the challenges of journalism in times of misinformation.