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Azam Ahmed, Emerson Collective Fellow, is a reporter at the New York Times, and was formerly bureau chief in Afghanistan as well as Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Over five years living in Mexico and working across the region, he covered corruption and violence extensively, including investigative projects that received the Polk Award, the Michael Kelly Award, the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism, and the Overseas Press Club Award. His final piece as bureau chief told the story of Miriam Rodriguez, who tracked down and helped imprison the members of a drug cartel that kidnapped and killed her daughter. Mrs. Rodriguez was then assassinated by the same cartel. The article served as a basis for his fellowship project, a non-fiction book that examines violence and impunity in Mexico through the prism of Mrs. Rodriguez's story in an effort to answer a question that has perplexed experts for decades: What went so wrong in Mexico?

Selected Works

• : The story of Miriam Rodriguez, a mother who died attempting to get justice for her family for the New York Times.
• : A story for the New York Times of a gang-controlled neighborhood in San Pedro Sula that illustrates how inescapable violence can be in places where conflict is endemic.
• : An exploration of how lax U.S. gun policy wreaks havoc on Latin American nations for the New York Times.
• : A year of interviews for the New York Times with a young Mexican sicario that sheds light on the allure of cartels and violence to the country's youth.
• : A look at an often-ignored component of the homicide crisis – the rampant murder of women in nations spread throughout Latin America – and the US government's cruel response to it for the New York Times.