MEXICO CITY — Any Cabrera, a veteran AP journalist who covered many of Latin America’s biggest stories during 33 years as a reporter and editor, died suddenly Monday morning at her home in Mexico City.
Cabrera, 60, was the news editor of the AP’s Spanish-language news service, based in Mexico City. She worked with reporters across Latin America as well as some in Spain and the United States.
Medical investigators believe Cabrera died of a heart attack. A friend who found her said she had been complaining of feeling poorly Sunday.
Ana Leonor Cabrera Rivas, affectionately known by her nickname “Any,” was born Aug. 11, 1955, in San Salvador, El Salvador.
“Any was the calm voice of reason on the other end of the line, the unflappable editor who always knew what had to be done next,” said Paul Haven, the cooperative’s news director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “She was loved and admired by everybody.”
Cabrera began working as an AP correspondent in El Salvador in 1983 during that country’s bloody civil war, and her dispatches stood out for their objectivity, transparency and balance in a profoundly polarized country.
After the war’s end in 1992, Cabrera was assigned by the AP to report news from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, including the South American giant’s transition to democracy after two decades of dictatorship.
In 2000 she transferred to Mexico City to become an editor on the Spanish service news desk. In 2011 Cabrera became that service’s news editor, helping lead an initiative to bolster editing and distribution of Spanish-language stories and improve coordination between the AP’s Spanish and English services.
“Any was a natural leader, a fine journalist and, above all, a good friend to many during her decades of reporting and editing the biggest and most important stories in Latin America,” said Marjorie Miller, AP vice president for global news and enterprise. “She was known for her wealth of knowledge about the region and her all-around smarts. What a loss for all of us at the AP and for the profession.”
Reporters described Cabrera as a thoroughly professional journalist who cared deeply about their needs and concerns.
“When we were working against the clock, Any went out of her way to help you make your deadline,” said Eva Vergara, AP correspondent in Santiago, Chile. “She could sense when her people were tired from so many hours working and she would send you home to rest a while, and in the middle of difficult stories such as earthquakes, she worried about you and asked how you and your families were.”
Cabrera adored her grandnephew and was delighted by the recent marriage of her daughter, Carol Beatriz Innis, in El Salvador. Besides her daughter, she is survived in her immediate family by a brother, Alejandro Cabrera.
E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
ALEJANDRO MANRIQUE