Data
Sample of Cross-Border Collaborative Projects
The sample consisted of collaborative investigative projects each involving journalists from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The topics of the projects included violence associated with gangs, cartels and organized crime, as well as violence associated with corruption, impunity, environmental destruction, and mass migration; affecting especially the most impoverished and marginalized populations of Central America and Mexico. The sample also contains some projects which investigated abuses against Central American and Mexican asylum-seekers who had fled from violence to the U.S. and/or Mexico or other Central American countries.
Some of the projects also included partners beyond the U.S, Mexico and Central America. These stories formed a secondary sample, which was studied in less detail, except for Forbidden Stories (based in France) and LightHouse Reports (based in the Netherlands), which coordinated three of the collaborations in total, and whose coverage was thus included in the primary sample.
The initial study and publications (Cheas 2023, 2024a-b, 2025; built on a sample of six to seven collaborative projects, produced and published between 2016 and 2022 (listed 1-7 below).
The final part of the study and publications (currently in review) build on a sample of a total of ten collaborative projects, produced and published between 2016 and 2024 (listed 1-10 below).
1. Killers on a Shoestring / La mafia de pobres que desangra El Salvador.
El Faro (El Salvador) & The New York Times (USA), 2016.
Investigation into the political economy of El Salvador's street gangs. Seven-month investigation in 2016. Virtual collaboration. One article in English and Spanish.
2. From Migrants to Refugees: The New Plight of Central Americans / De migrantes a refugiados: el nuevo drama centroamericano
El Faro (El Salvador) & Univision (USA), 2017.
The investigation focused on migrant shelters in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, filled with people from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, fleeing from violence. One year investigation, completed in 2017. Mostly virtual collaboration. Four lengthy "books" in English and Spanish.
3. Zero Tolerance: Trump's Immigration Policy at the Border
Animal Político (Mexico), El Faro (El Salvador), Plaza Pública, elPeriódico & Prensa Libre (Guatemala), 2018.
Examined forced Central American family separations imposed by Trump's Zero Tolerance policy, and violence against and disappearances of children in detention centers. Collaboration took place in 2018. Virtual. 10 stories in English and in Spanish.
4. Solitary Voices
Plaza Pública (Guatemala), Mexicanos contra la Corrupción (Mexico)
(Secondary sample: Grupo Sin.) 2019
Investigated the widespread misuse and overuse of solitary confinement in detention centers overseen by the U.S. Dpt. of Homeland Security. Collaboration took place in 2019. Virtual. 13 stories in English and in Spanish.
5. The Cartel Project
Forbidden Stories (France), Proceso (Mexico), & The Washington Post (USA) (Secondary sample: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), El Diario Libre de Panamá, Toronto Star, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, France TV, Le Monde, Radio France, El Pais, Haaretz, Expresso, de Volkskrant, WDR, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, RTS, Svt, Le Soir, Knack.be, Lede)
The international consortium of journalists took up the investigative work of Regina Martínez, a Mexican journalist for the magazine Proceso murdered in 2012. Collaboration took place in 2020. In-person. Five stories in English and in Spanish.
6. Massacre in El Salvador
ProPublica, PBS/Frontline, Retro Report (USA), El Faro (El Salvador), 2021.
An investigative story about the massacre in the Salvadoran village of El Mozote in December 1981, and the continued efforts by the Salvadoran and U.S. governments and military to hide documents and protect the perpetrators. In-person. One documentary and three articles in English.
7. Mining Secrets
Forbidden Stories (France), Prensa Comunitaria (Guatemala), El Faro (El Salvador), The Intercept (USA)
Proceso (Mexico) (Secondary sample: El Pais, The Guardian, Le Monde), 2022.
The international consortium investigated mining company's internal documents leaked by Guatemalan hacker group Guacamaya Roja, revealing that the company was aware it was polluting the lake and tried to hide it. In-person. 17 articles in English and/or in Spanish.
Extended Sample
Analysis completed in 2025; publications in review.
8. Tráileres, trampa para migrantes
Seven-month investigation that reveals the scale of a dangerous human smuggling trade through Mexico, using overcrowded trucks to carry migrants in precarious and dangerous conditions from Central America to the United States.
9. Death and Deterrence in the Rio Grande
Set out to build the first ever comprehensive binational database of migrant drowning deaths in the Rio Grande. Lighthouse Reports, in partnership with The Washington Post in the U.S. and El Universal in Mexico, spent a year collecting and analysing data from every Texas county and Mexican state along the Rio Grande. They found that at least 1,107 people drowned crossing the Rio Grande between Texas and Mexico from 2017 to 2023, a figure significantly higher than has been previously reported.
10. "We're not going to open it for them." What happened the night of the migrant detention center fire in Juárez?
La Verdad, Lighthouse Reports, and El Paso Matters.
The collaboration reveals new details of the events, faults, abuses, and negligence that occurred at the migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on March 27, 2023, and that contributed to the deadly consequences of the fire set in a locked detention cell where 40 migrants died.
Information about the media involved in these collaborations: