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AFP photographer wins Simon Bolivar Prize
Colombia’s Simon Bolivar Prize has been awarded to AFP photographer Luis Robayo, the second consecutive year a journalist from the agency has won the country’s top photo prize.
Robayo, 31, won the prize for his coverage of the occupation of an army base near Toribio in Cauca province in July 2012 by members of an indigenous community who want the army and FARC guerrillas to leave their violence-plagued region.
He has been AFP’s correspondent in Cali, capital of the FARC stronghold of Cauca, since 2008.
He is originally from the north eastern Colombian city of Cucuta on the Venezuelan border, and before joining AFP covered the border region for three years for the country’s leading daily El Tiempo.
The Simon Bolivar Prize is Colombia’s highest journalism award.
It has 11 categories and this is the second consecutive year AFP has been chosen for a prize.
In 2012, Luis Acosta, AFP’s chief photographer in Bogota, won for a series of images of Colombian acid attack victims.
About AFP
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,260 journalists spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.
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