Carrie Kahn
Carrie Kahn is NPR's International Correspondent based in Mexico City, Mexico. She covers Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Kahn's reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning news programs including All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, and on NPR.org.
Since arriving in Mexico in the summer of 2012, on the eve of the election of President Enrique Peña Nieto and the PRI party's return to power, Kahn has reported on everything from the rise in violence throughout the country to its powerful drug cartels, and the arrest, escape and re-arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. She has reported on the Trump Administration's immigration policies and their effects on Mexico and Central America, the increasing international migration through the hemisphere, gang violence in Central America and the historic détente between the Obama Administration and Cuba.
Kahn has brought moving, personal stories to the forefront of NPR's coverage of the region. Some of her most notable coverage includes the stories of a Mexican man who was kidnapped and forced to dig a cross-border tunnel from Tijuana into San Diego, a Guatemalan family torn apart by President Trump's family separation policies and a Haitian family's situation immediately following the 2010 earthquake and on the ten-year anniversary of the disaster.
Prior to her post in Mexico, Kahn was a National Correspondent based in Los Angeles. She was the first NPR reporter into Haiti after the devastating earthquake in early 2010, and returned to the country on numerous occasions to continue NPR's coverage of the Caribbean nation. In 2005, Kahn was part of NPR's extensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina, where she investigated claims of euthanasia in New Orleans hospitals, recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast and resettlement of city residents in Houston, Texas.
She has covered hurricanes, the controversial life and death of pop icon Michael Jackson and firestorms and mudslides in Southern California,. In 2008, as China hosted the world's athletes, Kahn recorded a remembrance of her Jewish grandfather and his decision to compete in Hitler's 1936 Olympics.
Before coming to NPR in 2003, Kahn worked for NPR Member stations KQED and KPBS in California, with reporting focused on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Kahn is a recipient of the 2020 Cabot Prize from Columbia Journalism School, which honors distinguished reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2010 she was awarded the Headliner Award for Best in Show and Best Investigative Story for her work covering U.S. informants involved in the Mexican Drug War. Kahn's work has been cited for fairness and balance by the Poynter Institute of Media Studies. She was awarded and completed a Pew Fellowship in International Journalism at Johns Hopkins University.
Kahn received a bachelor's degree in biology from UC Santa Cruz. For several years, she was a human genetics researcher in California and in Costa Rica. She has traveled extensively throughout Mexico, Central America, Europe and the Middle East, where she worked on an English/Hebrew/Arabic magazine.
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The Mexican man says he was one of 17 kidnapped by a cartel and forced to build drug-smuggling tunnels. Now he might be in prison for the rest of his life. -
Hubertus Von Hohenlohe will be the only skier representing Mexico in the Winter Olympics in Russia. A German prince and one of the oldest athletes to be competing in the Winter Olympics, Hohenlohe says he doesn't expect to win any medals. But he does hope people will notice his flair for fashion. -
Federal forces are backing away from a plan to disarm the civilian militias that are defending their communities from ruthless drug traffickers. In the western state of Michoacan, it's unclear how long the fragile peace will last.
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As many as 6 million pilgrims have made their way to the Mexican capital to pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe on Thursday. One woman has turned the country's most revered religious icon into a cartoon characterization, using it to build a multimillion-dollar company. -
Hondurans vote for a new president on Sunday. Crime, gangs and drug cartel violence have made it among the most dangerous countries in the world. If that weren't enough to drive voters to the polls, Honduras's economy is nearly bankrupt, and more than half of the country lives in poverty. -
Mexico is considering relaxing its law prohibiting foreigners from owning land within 30 miles of the coast or about 60 miles from an international border. Real estate developers say the change would lead to a boom along Mexico's coasts. But opponents fear it could launch a modern-day foreign land grab. -
In the battle against the bulge, lawmakers in Mexico are taking aim at consumers' pocketbooks. They're proposing a series of new taxes on high-calorie food and sodas. Health advocates say the higher prices will get Mexicans to change bad habits, but the beverage industry and small businesses are fighting back. -
In the central State of Mexico, authorities are trying a new approach to fight corruption: replacing notoriously crooked male traffic cops with women. But the state hasn't authorized the female force to issue tickets yet, and some question whether women will avoid bribery any more than men. -
President Enrique Pena Nieto gave an upbeat assessment of his nine-month-old administration on Monday in his first State of the Union address. Despite his positive review of Mexico's condition, the new president is dealing with chaotic teacher protests in the capital, intractable levels of violence and a less favorable economic outlook than predicted.
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Tlacoyos are a doughy corn tortilla of sorts that's cooked on a grill. Whether enjoyed on a plastic plate as street food or fine china in a high-end restaurant, it's been a favorite snack for centuries.
