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Jon Lee Anderson head shot - The New Yorker

Jon Lee Anderson

Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer, began contributing to The New Yorker in 1998. Since then, he has covered conflicts in numerous places, including Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, and Liberia. He has also reported frequently from Latin America, writing about Rio de Janeiro’s gangs, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an isolated tribe in Peru’s Amazon, and a Caracas slum, among other subjects, and has written Profiles of Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Gabriel García Márquez. His books include “To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban,” “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life,” “Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World,” “The Fall of Baghdad,” and “The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan.” He is the co-author, with Scott Anderson, of two books, “War Zones: Voices from the World’s Killing Grounds” and “Inside the League.” He has been honored by the Overseas Press Club, and in 2013 he was awarded a Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean. He began his reporting career in 1979, in Peru, followed by several years in Central America, and has maintained a close relationship to the region ever since, reporting from there frequently and giving journalism workshops to Latin American reporters.

How Colombia’s President Reached an Uneasy Détente with Donald Trump

After the attack in Venezuela, its neighbor state reckons with U.S. aggression.

Regime Change in America’s Back Yard

What comes after Nicolás Maduro’s ouster in Venezuela?

The Right Wing Rises in Latin America

The new President of Chile joins a new class of leaders trying to seize the future by rewriting the past.

Can Trump’s Peace Initiative Stop the Congo’s Thirty-Year War?

The President declared a diplomatic triumph. The view from the ground is more complex.

Why María Corina Machado Says That Trump Deserves Her Nobel Peace Prize

What does the Nobel Committee’s decision mean for future relations between Venezuela and the United States?

Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?

In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.

Brazil Braces for a Verdict on Its Ex-President—and on Its Democracy

Jair Bolsonaro faces decades in prison for allegedly attempting a coup after he lost an election. President Trump, like millions of Brazilians, is watching closely.

Pepe Mujica’s Long Revolution

For the Uruguayan leader, a longtime icon of the Latin American left, economic fairness was inseparable from human decency.

Brazil’s President Confronts a Changing World

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Trump, Putin, and a collapsing global order.

The Brazilian Judge Taking On the Digital Far Right

Alexandre de Moraes’s efforts to fight extremism online have pitted him against Jair Bolsonaro, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump.

Growing Up U.S.A.I.D.

As a child in postings around the world, the author witnessed the agency’s complex relationship with American empire—and with autocrats everywhere.

A Witness in Assad’s Dungeons

Mazen al-Hamada fled Syria to reveal the regime’s crimes. Then, mysteriously, he went back.

Syria Faces Its Past and Its Future

Images taken just after the precipitous end of the civil war reveal a secret legacy that is just becoming visible.

Searching for Loved Ones in a Newly Liberated Syrian Prison

After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the country tries to discern the fate of people the regime locked away.

Javier Milei Wages War on Argentina’s Government

The President, a libertarian economist given to outrageous provocations, wants to remake the nation. Can it survive his shock-therapy approach?

Lula, Maduro, and a New Cold War in Latin America

In the aftermath of Venezuela’s disputed election, the compact that has long bound the region’s left together appears finally to be breaking down.

Elon Musk’s Surging Political Activism

The X C.E.O. has been using his platform to sound off on topics including Venezuela’s election, Trump’s campaign, and racial violence in the U.K.

Venezuela’s Moment of Reckoning

Nicolás Maduro’s claim to have won the Presidential election has further inflamed the nation’s contest between democracy and authoritarianism.

Ecuador’s Risky War on Narcos

Does President Daniel Noboa’s campaign against drug gangs imperil the democracy he claims to defend?

The Brazilian Special-Forces Unit Fighting to Save the Amazon

As miners ravage Yanomami lands, combat-trained environmentalists work to root them out.