Julia Symmes Cobb runs Reuters’ coverage of the Andes from Bogotá: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname.
She joined Reuters as an intern and reported from Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and other countries as a stringer and correspondent before her appointment as Andean Bureau Chief. Prior to working full time at Reuters she also reported for The Washington Post, The New York Times and others. Her first book, on Colombia’s disappeared, is in progress.
Selected work · Reuters
All selected work- Rionegro
As Colombia slowly identifies conflict victims, families left waiting
Roselly Gil watched as authorities carefully removed the blackened bones from the rotting wooden coffin, stored for decades in a cemetery in Rionegro, Colombia. They were, she hoped, the remains of her younger brother.
- Cali
A tale of two buildings: how quake rescue efforts differed in Colombia and Venezuela
At a flattened apartment block known as Los Cocos in northern Venezuela, civilians toiled with little support to pull the living and the dead from the rubble. In neighboring Colombia, when residential towers in Cali collapsed, officials poured in to help. Reported with Sarah Morland.
- La Guaira
After Venezuela quakes, citizens lead rescues amid military theft accusations
Volunteers dug for survivors with their hands while videos showed security officials picking through the ruins.
- InvestigationBogotá
How Venezuela’s Nobel Prize winner built a high-stakes alliance with Trump
More than 50 sources on how María Corina Machado’s team helped the Trump administration build its case against Maduro, and what the gamble could cost. Reported with Sarah Kinosian.
- Palmira
Former Colombian rebels and soldiers work together to exhume remains, give families closure
For nearly a year the ex-rebels worked shoulder to shoulder with their former enemies - retired soldiers from the Colombian military - in a place that viscerally expresses the toll of Colombia's six decades of conflict: a cemetery.
Photographs
See all photographs-
Pedernales, Ecuador, 2016. Rescuers work to find victims of an earthquake on Ecuador's coast. -
La Guaira, Venezuela, 2026. Destruction at Los Cocos housing complex after twin earthquakes in June -
Sogamoso, Colombia, 2018. A forensic technician takes a blood sample from a woman looking for her missing father.
Contact
Press, speaking and everything else: j.symmes.cobb@gmail.com