Country of Origin: Mexico

Main Focus: Journalism, Crime Analysis, Investigative Reporting on Government Corruption, Drug and Human Trafficking, Press Freedom, Academia

Follow on: Twitter, PEN Canada and check out “The WolfPack”

Luis Horacio Najera is an acclaimed journalist and crime analyst from Mexico who has lived in exile in Canada since 2008. Throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to investigating politically sensitive issues ranging from government corruption to the trafficking of drugs, people and weapons, until his name was on a hit list that forced him to move his family and seeking asylum in Canada. Nájera was a reporter for Grupo Reforma based in Ciudad Juárez, a notorious gateway to the lucrative North

American drug market and widely deemed from 2008 to 2012 the most dangerous place on Earth. After 14 months without a job in Canada, he found work as a janitor cleaning floors and toilets. A few months later, he would be recognized as the second Mexican to receive one of the CJFE 2010 International Press Freedom Award for his fearsomeness in reporting. Najera was the PEN Canada-George Brown Writer in Residence in Toronto, and recipient of one of the 2011 Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammet Awards.

He is the first Mexican journalist selected as a member of Massey College, and former fellow at the Citizen Lab/Canada Centre for Global Security Studies. He received a Master's of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Disaster and Emergency Management from York University. Najera co-authored the book “The Wolfpack: The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld”. He is frequently cited by national media on transnational organized crime and press freedom issues.

Read Luis’ Blog: 14 Years and One Tweet

On September 27, 2022, on our 14th anniversary of arriving in Canada seeking refuge after fleeing Mexico to survive death threats from organized crime and corrupt officers, I signed my contract as a part-time janitor in a supermarket in Toronto. The next day, I was introduced at a conference at the University of Ottawa as an award-winning journalist in exile and author published by the world’s largest printing house.