My name is Alexander Ramiro Villegas and I'm the Reuters senior correspondent in Chile in charge of the bureau in Santiago. We cover everything from mining, penguins and dinosaur fossils to the economy, climate change and politics.
My sentences and photographs have been published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC, The Miami Herald, Hakai Magazine and The Smithsonian Magazine.
I've reported on indigenous land conflicts in Central America, unrest in Nicaragua, debt crises in Latin America, drug trafficking in Costa Rican fishing communities, climate change and Amazon's labor practices.
I was also a field producer for Netflix's Tiger King. I led the investigation into Don Lewis's disappearance in Costa Rica and produced shoots around the country.
From 2018 to 2019 I was the assistant managing editor of The Tico Times, Costa Rica's oldest English-language publication. I managed a small newsroom filled with talented reporters and guided the newspaper through the 2018 Nicaraguan crisis and the sexual assault allegations against former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias.
I also spearheaded and launched a number of multimedia projects for the newspaper. I started the paper's 360 video coverage, launched a podcast and started a weekly video news show.
Before focusing on Latin America, I lived off the back of a motorcycle and traveled the world reporting on poker. I wrote for a number of poker publications and covered the biggest tournaments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States.
I grew up in Costa Rica and then got my BA in journalism from the University of Connecticut where I won a 2010 Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Connecticut Journalism Contest.
In 2017 I graduated with a Masters in international reporting from the University of British Columbia, where I was a fellow at the Global Reporting Centre. As a fellow, I reported on how overfishing pushed Costa Rican fishermen deeper into the drug trade and was part of an Edward R. Murrow award-winning team that reported on problems facing rapidly growing cities around the world for The Guardian.
I'm a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization. I'm a mountaineer that's fluent in Spanish, English and also proficient in French and motorcycle adventures.
