A story on animal cruelty, organized crime, and state complicity in Argentina made history at the 2024 Gabo Awards by becoming the first work ever to take home the coveted journalism prize in two of the five different categories. 

The long-form feature, titled La noche de los caballos: el rescate equino más grande de América del Sur (Night of the Horses: The Greatest Equine Rescue in South America) and published in Colombian magazine Gatopardo, won Best Text and Best Pictures, awarded to author Diego Fernández Romeral and photographer Ana Pouchard Serra, respectively. 

In her acceptance speech, Pouchard Serra dedicated the award to “Argentine journalism, which is going through a difficult time.” She also extended her solidarity to Argentine women journalists in the midst of sexual harassment accusations made against a high-profile male journalist, as well as to workers of state-run news agency Télam, which the government has shut down and turned into an advertisement agency. 

“To all my colleagues in Argentina, those in large outlets who are under the poverty line and those in small outlets who make wonders with nothing, they are an inspiration in this time where attacks [against] journalists are more frequent in the region and in Argentina, where things are very difficult,” she stated.

The story written by Fernández Romeral centers around the rescue of over 700 horses that were found on the brink of death in a field in Buenos Aires province. The ensuing investigation uncovered a criminal network devoted to running an illegal operation of horse meat exports that featured raiding, animal cruelty, and state complicity.   

The prizes were announced along with the winners of the three other Gabo Awards categories on Friday in the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Theatre in Bogotá, Colombia. The Best Coverage prize was awarded to Amazon Underworld, a collective work by Brazil, Colombian, and Venezuelan media outlets on the impact criminality in the region is having on indigenous populations and the environment. 

Best Audio was awarded to The Brave Women: Guií Chaána (women who knit), a podcast about an indigenous Mexican community aimed at questioning practices like the selling of women for marriage and the role it has in enabling violence. The Best Image prize went to Valley of the Isolated: The Murder of Bruno and Dom, a documentary from Brazilian network TV Globo on how the government’s negligence regarding illegal activities in the Amazons contributed to the murders of activist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips. 

The Acknowledgment of Excellence Award was given to Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, who has been in prison since June 2022 on charges of money laundering. Numerous human rights organizations have considered his imprisonment retaliation for his work denouncing government corruption, and a United Nations work group recently called for his release.

The first Gabo Awards took place in 2014 and are considered the most prestigious prize in Spanish-speaking media. Inspired by the ideals of journalist and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Gabriel García Márquez, they are handed out by the Gabo Foundation, created by the Colombian writer in 1994.

Cover photo credit: Fundación Gabo