Carlos Marín, Mexico, is editorial director of Milenio, a new independent newspaper based in Mexico City.
Launched on Jan. 1, 2000, Milenio focuses primarily on investigative and interpretative reporting of business, political, international and social issues. Marín is a former co-founder of Proceso, a leading weekly newsmagazine, where he oversaw news operations. He is best known for his investigations of the Mexican military. In 1997, Marín published national defense ministry documents, showing that ranking members of the Mexican military had ties to drug lords. Two weeks earlier, Marín had obtained a copy of a letter written by the plastic surgeon who operated on the Mexican drug lord Amado “Lord of the Skies” Carrillo. Carrillo died after the surgery, allegedly because of the ineptitude of his longtime personal physicians. In the letter Marín published, the plastic surgeon denied knowing Carrillo’s true identity when he was admitted to the hospital and said he feared for his life and professional reputation. The doctor later went missing.