The End of VICE News Latam Marks New Beginnings

Some rare personal updates, and new intentions for 2024

On December 20th last year, I got the email I had been dreading for some months. Maybe even a year. A meeting with the bosses, starting in 15 minutes.

VICE wasn’t going to be renewing my contract, I was told - one which had started back in August 2020 during the height of the pandemic - as editorial director of VICE News Latin America. It was the end of an era, one I didn’t expect to last the three years that it did.

I can’t say I was surprised. VICE had been having a very public existential crisis for months by then, finally filing for bankruptcy in May and laying off dozens of journalists, producers and editors during 2023. It was hard to watch, often live, and the fear of getting cut was finally extinguished by, well, getting cut.

My team had, in my opinion and those of others who told me as much, a great run. We all produced long and short form stories and social media content that was a major driver of readers to VICE and often got the attention of legacy media in the U.S. I believe that no one reports on drugs, crime, harm reduction and the cartels like VICE News does. That coverage and tone may be gone, for now, but time will show what happens with the body of journalism the team built with significant risk and courage over our three years and a half years in action.

Despite the bad news of redundancy, I have found myself excited, over the holiday break, about what 2024 may bring. VICE News had, for months, not been a great place to work but few in the journalism business today would choose to walk away from a paycheck without a job to go to. The decision was made for me, and that feels strangely OK.

What comes next? This Substack, for starters.

For the last year, and before the publication of NARCAS in July, I have been telling people how I want to write a novel based on my experiences in Latin America so far. I’ve also been working on another non-fiction book proposal about psychedelics, Maria Sabina and the growing demand for therapy using such substances from the contemporary academic and health community here in Mexico.

So it’s time to execute those aspirations, no matter the results. I keep hearing the following messages from the books / social media / podcasts I am currently consuming: 1)You never feel ready to start, so just start (I feel that has always been the case for me, even when deciding on whether to have kids or not), and 2) It’s not the results or end goal but the journey and what you learn on the way that’s important. Maybe those messages are signs, or maybe I’m just tuned into what I want to channel? We might never know.

What I DO know is that old (journalism) habits die hard and I need pressure, and readers, to produce writing regularly. So here goes.

This channel will be the source of both fact and fiction writing around the drug trade and the region, the fight for Mexico’s psychedelic soul, and all things women and crime.

Please keep me accountable, dear reader, and consider pledging something to support NARCAS moving forward. Onwards.