Heriberto Araujo is a freelance investigative journalist, author, and speaker based in Southern Europe. A Pulitzer Center grantee and former Agence France-Press (AFP) staff reporter, he has been based in Paris (2004-2007), Beijing (2008-2013), and Rio de Janeiro (2014-2019).
His work focuses on China’s global expansion; the fate of the Amazon rain forest; and the human, economic, and social consequences of climate change. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The South China Morning Post, and The Atlantic. He has also contributed with feature and opinion pieces for the Spain-based newspapers El Pais and El Periodico.
His two nonfiction books on China have been translated into twelve languages, from Mandarin to German, and were published by Crown, Penguin, Planeta, Hanser, Flammarion, and Feltrinelli. His new book and first solo project—Masters of the Lost Land. The Untold Story of the Amazon and the Violent Fight for the Last Frontier—is a true crime story that involved three years of field investigation to uncover the human and environmental costs of the jungle's drastic transformation from virgin forest to agricultural powerhouse. It will be published by Custom House (USA) and Atlantic (UK) in 2022.
As a video-journalist, Araujo has worked for the French France 24 and ARTE, the Austrian ORF, the Spanish Tele 5, and the Mexican Televisa. His photographs have also been published by The Guardian, El Pais, and The South China Morning Post. As a television reporter, Araujo has covered breaking news like earthquakes in Indonesia and Japan, violent riots and political summits in China, and a presidential impeachment in Brazil.
As a speaker, Araujo has participated in discussions held at the European Parliament, Oxford University, London School of Economics, Leeds University, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and Mexico’s EBC. On publication of his books, he has been interviewed by BBC, TV5 Monde, and CNN Mexico.
Araujo grew up in Barcelona, Spain, and went to college in both Barcelona and Paris. He received a degree in journalism and was the recipient of an Erasmus scholarship to study at the University of Paris VIII.
Araujo is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, and Brazilian Portuguese.