Joaquim Ibarz Melet (25 May 1943 – 12 March 2011) was a Spanish journalist who for 28 years was a Latin America correspondent for the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia.
In announcing that he had been awarded a 2010 Maria Moors Cabot prize, the School of Journalism at Columbia University praised the blog's "keen analysis, in-depth reporting and tough and witty prose," saying that it had "become a must-read for journalists and opinion makers in the region.
Still, he added that "Lula's successful government in Brazil, Chile's institutional strength, Santos' victory in Colombia, and Funes' prudence in El Salvador, augur better days for the region.
"[4] Ibarz's wry perspective on Latin America was reflected in some of his comments on receiving the Maria Moors Cabot Prize: "I've been running around this part of the world for 28 years and I can't complain.
"[3] El País correspondent Juan Jesús Aznárez said "I will never forget his loyalty to his friends, his unwavering attachment to journalism, and an eagerness and curiosity that did not dwindle one iota until his last day.
"[2] His colleague Lluís Foix called him "one of the greats of international journalism...the correspondent who has known for the longest time, and known best, the changing political scene of Latin America over forty years.
"[5] Fifteen of Ibarz's colleagues signed their names to a memoir for the Spanish newspaper ABC which read, in part, "He had friends in every city, and that's saying something.
Javier Sandomingo, Spanish ambassador to Peru, said that "Joaquín...always gave me the benefit of his encyclopedic knowledge of the region" and praised his "commitment to the fight" against the abettors of tyranny in politics and the press.
"[12] Journalist Fran Sevilla, in a posthumous tribute addressed to Ibarz, said: "From your beloved Mexico to your adored Lima, from Quito to Managua, from turbulent Caracas to violent Bogotá or San Salvador or Guatemala, from the arrested Asunción to the devastated Port au Prínce, in the rubble of the Hotel Villa Creole, you were always there, writing history, living it, narrating it in your indispensable chronicles in La Vanguardia.
"[13] A Peruvian colleague wrote: "We Latin Americans have been greatly fortunate that Joaquín Ibarz Melet...arrived in Mexico one day in 1982 as the correspondent of La Vanguardia.
[3][6] In announcing the award, Columbia University said that Ibarz had produced "some of the best-informed and clear-eyed writing of anyone in the hemisphere" and that he "still approaches his job with the contagious enthusiasm of a cub reporter."
The Columbia University statement noted further that while covering the Haitian earthquake, Ibarz had "darted through Port-au-Prince's rubble-filled streets on the back of a motorcycle.
He finally found it when he stumbled on a slowly deflating, two-story balloon in the shape of Hugo Chávez in front of the presidential palace....Ibarz has always been the first to ask uncomfortable questions and demand difficult answers of those in power, regardless of political fashion or persuasion."
Two months before his death he returned from Mexico City to Spain, where he moved back to his family home in Zaidín and received medical treatment in Barcelona.
[9] In April 2011, Ibarz received a posthumous tribute in the form of a ceremony held at the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico City.
[3] During his decades of travels around Latin America, Ibarz collected over 1000 cultural items that he wanted to display in a museum located in Zaidín that he planned to call "La Casa de Usted."