Azam Ahmed

Azam Ahmed is the bureau chief for México, Central America and the Caribbean at The New York Times, where he has worked on projects examining corruption and the illegal use of government spyware in Mexico and the homicide crisis in Latin America. He was previously bureau chief in Afghanistan.

Mr. Ahmed’s investigative work on corruption and the illegal use of spyware, Pegasus, helped launch federal investigations in México and was submitted by the Times for a Pulitzer Prize.

In 2019, Mr. Ahmed reported a series on the homicide crisis in Latin America, the deadliest region in the world, outlining the root causes of the violence.

Each piece delve into a specific issue in a specific country, using intimate portraits of those living on the front lines of the crisis: the inescapable cycles of violence in Honduras, the scourge of femicide in Guatemala, the pervasiveness of illegally smuggled U.S. guns in Jamaica, the making of a cartel assassin in Mexico and the violence of the state in Brazil.

The project was also submitted by the Times for a Pulitzer.

Prior to moving to Mexico, Mr. Ahmed worked for nearly three years in Afghanistan covering the war there. He accompanied the Afghan security forces as they struggled to take over security from US forces, and more broadly wrote about the deterioration of the US’ longest-running war.