Julia Symmes Cobb runs Reuters’ coverage of the Andes from Bogotá: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, and Suriname.
She joined Reuters as a trainee and reported from Colombia as a stringer and correspondent before her appointment as Andean Bureau Chief in 2022. Prior to working full time at Reuters she also reported as a stringer in the region for The Washington Post and The New York Times. 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
Colombia's search unit has some 137,000 names. Families are still waiting for a body to bury.
Reuters story, as carried by Yahoo News
- Cali
A tale of two buildings: how quake rescue efforts differed in Colombia and Venezuela
Cali's rescue was coordinated within hours. Across the border, it was not. 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
Ex-FARC commanders and retired soldiers spent a year restoring a cemetery’s ‘forgotten corner’, where at least 600 unidentified people were buried.
Photographs
See all photographs-
Pedernales, Ecuador, 2016. Rescuers at dusk. -
Sogamoso, Colombia, 2018. A forensic technician takes a blood sample from a woman looking for her missing father. The DNA will be entered into the national database and compared with unidentified bodies. -
Colombia, 2019. Farmer Romulo Lozano watches as Colombian coffee federation advisor John James Gomez examines coffee tree seedlings on Lozano’s farm.
Contact
Press, speaking and everything else: j.symmes.cobb@gmail.com