Introducing ‘Indomitable’

What does it take for a journalist to press on despite multiple obstacles—threats, drastic changes in the media landscape, financial constraints, or even dictatorships and exile?

We explore this topic this month as part of our ongoing participation in a group of Central American media outlets united by La Sala: Mujeres en la Redacción—a space created by and for women directors of independent media outlets in Central America. The participating outlets are El Colectivo 506 (Costa Rica), laCuerda (Guatemala), Radio Progreso (Honduras), Revista Factum (El Salvador), and the Nicaragua Actual / EntrePatrias alliance (Nicaragua).

Last month, the media outlets that received journalism production grants from La Sala published a joint investigation into the challenges facing children’s and adolescents’ rights in Central America. This month, we are publishing profiles of leaders in Central American journalism—women who are making a difference from their respective trenches, whether in newsrooms, classrooms, or other settings.

Introducing: “Indomitable.”

Meet the journalists who created the profiles:

🇬🇹Mélina Nantel is a journalist with LaCuerda, a Guatemalan feminist association. She practices journalism aimed at fostering emancipation. Her work intersects gender, human rights, and international cooperation, drawing on her experience as a freelance journalist for Canadian and Central American media outlets in French, English, and Spanish. She holds master’s degrees in International Cooperation and Education from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and in Gender and Feminist Studies from McGill University (Canada).

🇳🇮Abigail Hernández López. She is the director of La Sala, Mujeres en la Redacción(Women in the Newsroom). A Nicaraguan journalist, researcher, and human rights advocate with over 20 years of experience specializing in gender issues, press freedom, and photojournalism, she graduated with a degree in Philology and Communication (2002-2007) from UNAN-Managua and is known for her ongoing pursuit of academic and professional innovation.

🇭🇳Iolany Pérez is a Honduran journalist and storyteller who seeks to uphold the dignity of people’s lives. For seven years, she coordinated communications for Radio Progreso and ERIC (Reflection, Research, and Communication Team). She currently spearheads investigative journalism initiatives at this Honduran media outlet and teaches at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH-Cortés).

🇸🇻Loida Martínez Avelar is an investigative journalist at Revista Factum in El Salvador, and a 2025 Gabo Award winner. She specializes in significant investigations into government corruption and serious human rights violations. She is an honorary professor at Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain, and a beneficiary of Reporters Without Borders’ “Safe Space” program. She holds a degree in Social Communication from the Central American University (UCA) and has trained at leading journalism schools across Ibero-America.

🇨🇷Katherine Stanley Obando, co-founder of El Colectivo 506 and the Latin American Solutions Journalism Fund, is an award-winning journalist, editor, and author who has lived in Costa Rica for 22+ years. She specializes in longform journalism about women’s rights, migration, and education.

🇨🇷Mónica Quesada Cordero, co-founder of El Colectivo 506 and the Latin American Solutions Journalism Fund, is an award-winning photojournalist with 20+ years of experience developing photography projects in the areas of editorial, portraiture, wildlife, food, and architecture. She holds a master’s degree in Audiovisual and Multimedia Production.

*This story was produced as part of a La Sala: Mujeres en la Redacción journalism production grant, funded by Vikes, the Foundation for Media and Development, an initiative that seeks to strengthen independent, critical and investigative journalism—as well as to promote the participation, leadership and projection of women journalists—through influential and impactful actions that contribute to making their voices visible and positioning them as benchmarks of journalism, research and public opinion.