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MEXICO CITY — Fernando González, who spent many years overlaying and directing main tales for The Related Press throughout Latin America, from papal visits to frame skirmishes, hurricanes and hostage standoffs, has died in Havana.
González, 60, died at his house early Monday after struggling a coronary heart assault, Cuba’s forensic drugs director stated.
Gregarious and seemingly inexhaustible, González, recognized for his trademark lengthy grey ponytail, was particularly sturdy and compassionate in disaster conditions, each overlaying the information and tirelessly organizing assist when colleagues have been ailing or injured.
“Fernando represented the most effective of AP. He was a terrific journalist and liked the large tales,” stated AP Govt Editor Julie Tempo. “He was additionally a heat and caring colleague, somebody whose affect was felt throughout all corners of the group. He can be dearly missed.”
Born in Uruguay, González graduated from highschool in Santiago, Chile, after which attended the College of Miami. He labored for a neighborhood radio station earlier than finally shifting into information manufacturing, typically freelancing for The Related Press in Latin America.
González joined the AP full time in 2002 as senior producer for tv information in Havana. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 2014 as regional video editor for Latin America and the Caribbean after which to Mexico Metropolis because the AP’s deputy information director for the area in 2016. González returned to Cuba in 2020 as information director for the Caribbean and Andes.
Among the many main tales he lined have been the 1996 hostage siege on the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Peru, Hurricane Mitch’s devastating affect on Central America in 1998, and the 2004 coup that overthrew Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
In 2007 González reported from Antarctica on the go to of U.N Secretary-Basic Ban Ki-moon.
González additionally lined three papal journeys to Cuba by St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, in addition to President Barack Obama’s historic go to in 2016 and the loss of life of former Cuban President Fidel Castro later that yr.
Anita Snow, who reopened AP’s Havana bureau in 1999 after a virtually 30-year absence, praised González as “an excellent journalist,” calling him, “a fair higher human being: heat, beneficiant and persistently type.”
“And he in all probability knew Latin America higher than anybody,” stated Snow, who labored with González in Cuba and Mexico. She is presently an AP author in Phoenix.
Chris Gillette, senior video producer for the AP in Brazil and a highschool classmate of González, agreed.
“He was a very good individuals particular person, and really charming, so he was capable of get into locations others would possibly discover difficult — a real raconteur, amiable and sensible,” Gillette stated.
Nico Maounis, head of particular information occasions for AP’s broadcast providers, recalled Gonzalez because the consummate deal dealer, gaining the AP entry to everybody from presidents and different excessive officers to the easy man on the road.
“What was he like as an individual? He was outgoing, he was cosmopolitan, he was humorous, he was a diplomat, he was critical, a comic book and a joker. He was all the pieces,” Maounis stated.
Longtime AP photographer Enric Marti summed up González’s compassion for these much less lucky, noting how he continued to patronize his favourite Mexico Metropolis restaurant, Lucille, even throughout the pandemic when others stayed away, tipping the waiters handsomely.
“He stored going and raised cash for the waiters. … They mainly had no ideas and no cash,” stated Marti, AP’s deputy director of pictures/world enterprise. “Every time I used to be on the town we’d meet in Lucille. It was Fernando’s bar.”
González is survived by his spouse Lisa, kids Maria Linda and Nicolas, and three grandchildren, in addition to his mother and father.
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