Rafael Romo is a CNN national correspondent based at the network’s southeast bureau in Atlanta. Prior to assuming his current role in September 2023, Romo served as both anchor and correspondent for CNN en espa?ol, where he anchored the global affairs show Mirador Mundial since 2016 and covered top stories across Latin America and the world. Romo was initially hired by CNN International in 2009 as Senior Latin American Affairs Editor, also serving as correspondent and analyst. He was also in charge of tracking the top stories across Latin America for the global audiences of CNN across its multiple platforms. Romo also frequently writes articles on Latin American issues for CNN Digital.

A native of Mexico, Romo is an Emmy-award winning, bilingual journalist with more than three decades of experience as an anchor, correspondent, manager of news coverage and journalism professor. Prior to being hired by CNN in 2009, he worked for CBS in Chicago as general assignment reporter and as correspondent and anchor for Univision. He is fluent in Spanish and English and has reported in both languages throughout his career.

Since joining CNN, Romo has covered multiple top global stories, including the Israel war against Hamas in October 2023, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the legalization of abortion in Mexico in 2021, the Covid-19 global pandemic in 2020, the deadly clashes between government forces and protesters in Venezuela in 2019, and the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France in 2015.

Previously, Romo covered multiple natural disasters like hurricanes Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 and Patricia in Mexico in 2015. In 2010, he covered the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake and deadly floods in northern Brazil. In 2014, he investigated, produced, wrote and hosted a documentary about the root causes of migration in Central America reporting from Honduras and Guatemala.

As part of Freedom Project, a CNN initiative focusing on ending modern-day slavery, Romo conducted a special investigation about the human trafficking of young girls from Mexico to the United States who were forced to work as prostitutes. The investigation led to the publication of two documentaries in Spanish and multiple reports for CNN International in English.

He has also produced, written, and hosted two documentaries and multiple reports on Chile’s “Children of Silence,” babies who were stolen at birth in the 1970s and 80s in the South American country to be sold into adoption. Those babies are now adults who have in recent years found the truth about their origins and have shared those stories with CNN.

Romo was part of the CNN Worlwide team that won an Emmy award for covering the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. He was also nominated to the Emmys in 2018 as part CNN’s coverage of hurricanes the previous year. Also in 2018, Romo was nominated to the Emmys for the CNNE multi-country investigation “Passports in the Shadows” about a scheme by which foreigners in the Middle East obtained real Venezuelan passports by paying a bribe. Romo had previously won a local Emmy at WBBM for live coverage of the Chicago Marathon in 2004.

In 2010, Romo was inducted to the Alumni Hall of Fame at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication where he earned his broadcast journalism degree. In recognizing Romo for his success, Christopher Callahan, then dean of ASU’s journalism school, described Romo as “[…] a hard-hitting international reporter, Rafael Romo embodies the best of the Cronkite School. Rafael has achieved tremendous success in a relatively short period of time. We are proud to count him among our Hall of Fame honorees.”

Romo was twice won journalism awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He started his career in Journalism in 1990 as a reporter at a local radio station in Phoenix, Arizona, while still a high school student. Three years later, he started his TV journalism career at WGBO TV, a Univision local station also in Phoenix.