Monica’s Recent Stories
Nation Sep 16
Ordinary people are taking the law into their own hands to counter cartel threatIn the mountain top village of Ayahualtempa in Guerrero state Mexico, children are learning how to use firearms and preparing for an attack by a nearby drug cartel. In our third and final story on the ravages of the cross-border…
World Sep 15
Fentanyl is making its way into various drugs sold in the U.S. Here’s how it gets thereFor the second part of our series on the ravages of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, we take a look at the deadly cost of the drug just across the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. With the support of the Pulitzer Center,…
World Sep 14
A secret look at a Mexican cartel’s low-tech, multimillion-dollar fentanyl operationTonight, we begin a three-part look at the production — and devastating effects — of the drug fentanyl. Illicit use of the synthetic opioid painkiller has ravaged the United States, with Mexican drug cartels now seeing huge profits. With the…
World Jul 28
Congo Basin’s endangered wildlife find unlikely guardians in indigenous huntersThe Congo Basin is home to the world’s second-largest rainforest and a unique array of biodiversity. But the ecosystem's remote location cannot protect it from the threat of poaching. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar and videographer Phil Caller traveled to the…
World Jul 24
Widespread logging threatens the Congo Basin’s critical rainforestThe Democratic Republic of Congo is a massive country, with a land area the size of Alaska and Texas combined. It’s also home to a large part of the Congo Basin rainforest, a habitat for countless species and a crucial…
World Jul 15
Ebola finally defeated, Congo faces COVID-19In June, the World Health Organization announced the good news that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was over. But now, the country is grappling with a new health challenge: COVID-19. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar reports in…
Health Jan 16
Despite outbreak, Ebola treatment and vaccine represent ‘resounding scientific success’Recently, the FDA formally approved the first vaccine to prevent the Ebola virus. The advance comes at a crucial time, as Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering an outbreak that has lasted over a year and a half and sickened…
World Jan 15
How war and misinformation are complicating the DRC’s Ebola battleAn outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has plagued Democratic Republic of Congo for nearly a year and a half, with more than 3,000 people getting sick and 2,000 dead. Major medical advances in prevention and treatment have kept the…
World Jun 27
Preserving the priceless manuscripts of TimbuktuA world of knowledge was nearly lost forever amid the al-Qaida occupation in Timbuktu five years ago. Many were burnt, but thousands of ancient manuscripts were smuggled away and saved, and now are being digitized. And yet time and money…
World Apr 16
For Mali’s Tuareg, music speaks of suffering and the SaharaThe music of Mali's Tuareg people is music of resistance. Master traders of the Sahara desert for millenia, they've never enjoyed significant political power, and their musical culture reflects that frustration and struggle. But times have been tough for these…