Director for Latin America at Agence France-Presse (AFP). As Latin America director, Maria oversees AFP’s strategic and commercial development across the region, conceiving programs to enhance customer loyalty and build new alliances with media and corporate partners. Gave talks and presentations to media executives on new audience development, AI, digital transformation, and misinformation.

Maria is a journalist with more than two decades of experience reporting and news management around the world.

She was previously AFP’s Editor-in-Chief for Latin America from 2014-2019, leading AFP’s digital transformation across the region. She spearheaded the development of AFPs video network and its content verification, part of the agency’s core editorial strategy. 

During her career, she led reporting teams on the ground during major breaking news events, making on-the-spot editorial decisions, as well as managing the organization of coverage and the security of her team of journalists. 

She also directed breaking news coverage and analysis of stories across the region, including; the political, economic and social crises in Venezuela, Mexico’s elections in 2018, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, the death of Cuba’s Fidel Castro as well as a range of key summits.

Maria, who speaks three languages fluently (English, French and Spanish), has held a range of posts in Latin America, North America and Europe, allowing her to witness the digital transformation of the media industry from a global perspective. 

Before taking up her current post in 2021, she served as AFP bureau chief for Argentina and Paraguay, based in Buenos Aires, and was also a foreign correspondent in Los Angeles (2003-2006) and Brussels (2012-2014).

 Maria earned a BA in Information Sciences, specializing in journalism from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, as well as an MA in Political Science with a Latin America specialization.