In her early days starting out as a journalist at Reforma in 1993, Anabel worked local news stories and learned to collect information directly from sources on the street. By the time she was working at Milenio, she knew enough to break ‘Toallagate’ in 2001. Toallagate saw Anabel uncover the vast public expenditures on the residence of president Vicente Fox, for which she was awarded the National Journalism Award in Mexico in 2002. Anabel reported that the president's office had spent around 440,000 USD to redecorate two cabins in the presidential compound. Her report caused immediate controversy as Fox had promised during his election campaign to run a government of austerity. His popularity subsequently plummeted in the polls and his wife and at least four others lost their jobs in his administration.

Her work then progressed to uncovering slave labour networks and the sexual exploitation of Mexican girls on agricultural land in San Diego, California, which was recognized by UNICEF. As she gained recognition for her work she began to be contacted by citizens with information on potential stories and moved to reporting on drug cartels, perhaps Mexico’s most dangerous job. Drug related violence has left thousands dead in the country over the past decade and reporters are routinely targeted both by state officials and criminal narco-gangs for reporting on the situation.

In her most recent book, Los Señores del Narco / The Drug Traffickers (2010, Grijalbo Mondadori Sa), Anabel details the complicities between organised crime and high-level authorities, from government officials to the police, the military and businessmen. She analyzes the evolution of drug production and trafficking in Mexico since the 1970s and reveals the alarming role played by Mexican government officials and agents from the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency. Using testimonies and official reports gathered during a five-year investigation, the book describes in painstaking detail the process by which Mexico has become the epicentre of the mega-cartels in Latin America and one of the most violent places on the planet. She has received death threats from both state and non-state actors in reprisal for the book’s publication.

Her professed aim as an investigative journalist is to work against the presumption of anonymity that governs the actions of corrupt state officials in Mexico. She believes that, “corruption grows through silence. If journalists of my generation keep silent, if we give up to our work for fear or complicity, journalists after us will be condemned to kneel to this corruption. I hope I will live… and see that that never happens”.

More on: 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom Awarded to Mexican Journalist Anabel Hernández