Maria Cristina Caballero

Bogota, Colombia

Maria Cristina Caballero was Director of Investigations at Semana, Colombia's main weekly news magazine, from (1998-2001). Previously she was also editor of investigations at Cambio news-magazine and El Tiempo, Colombia's main daily paper. She is currently a Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership. She completed a master's degree in public administration at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Previously, Caballero completed a Communications and Journalism degree at Colombia's Javeriana University.Caballero was a 1993 Alfred Friendly Press Fellow at Time magazine's Washington, D.C. Bureau (a working fellowship) and a 1997 Lucius W. Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Caballero won a 1998 Simon Bolivar National Prize in Journalism (the Colombian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) for her exclusive interview with Carlos Castano, leader of Colombia's paramilitaries. She won the same award in 1991 for a series of investigative reports regarding corruption at Colombia's National Property Institute. Caballero also received the 1990 Inter American Press Association Human Rights Award. In 1999, she won a World Press Freedom Award from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, "In recognition of her commitment to the defense of press freedom in Colombia and throughout the world." Her articles and editorials about Latin American and human rights issues, the situation of countries in conflict, press freedom issues, and gender issues have appeared in, among others, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, CNN Interactive, the International Herald Tribune and the Miami Herald. While at the Center for Public Leadership, Caballero plans to write about the leadership challenges facing Colombia and other Latin American countries. Close.