Our Man in Panama
The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of Manuel Noriega

About John Dinges

Investigative reporter, author, correspondent for many years in Latin America, John Dinges received a master's degree from Stanford University in Latin American studies, then began freelancing in Chile, writing mainly for the Washington Post, during a six-year period that included the socialist revolution of President Salvador Allende, the violent military coup that overthrew him, and the first five years of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. In addition to his writing he is a frequent speaker in English and Spanish on investigative journalism, authoritarianism, and the functions of an independent press in preserving democracy. Awards include the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal for Latin American reporting, the DuPont-Columbia gold and silver batons (shared with others at NPR) and the medal "Órden de Bernardo O'Higgins en el Grado de Comendador" conferred by the government of Chile.

He is the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University, currently with emeritus status. Previously he worked on the foreign desk of the Washington Post, traveling as a reporter to cover the civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. From 1985 to 1996 he worked at National Public Radio as deputy senior foreign editor, managing editor, and editorial director. His first job in journalism was at the Des Moines Register & Tribune in his native State of Iowa.