Sebastian Rotella

Senior Reporter

Photo of Sebastian Rotella

Sebastian Rotella is a senior reporter at ProPublica. An award-winning foreign correspondent and investigative reporter, he worked for almost 23 years for the Los Angeles Times before joining ProPublica in 2010. He covers international security issues including terrorism, intelligence, organized crime, human rights and migration. His reporting has taken him across the Americas and Europe, and to the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.

Sebastian was co-writer and correspondent for Terror in Europe, a 2016 Frontline documentary that was a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors broadcast/video award. In 2013, his Finding Oscar investigation with This American Life won a Peabody Award, a Dart Center Award, and two awards from the Overseas Press Club. In 2012, he was recognized with Italy’s Urbino Press Award for excellence in American journalism. His A Perfect Terrorist investigation of the Mumbai attacks (with Frontline) was nominated for an Emmy, and the online version of the story got an Overseas Press Club Award in 2011.

In 2006, he was named a Pulitzer finalist for international reporting for his L.A. Times coverage of terrorism and Muslim communities in Europe, which won the German Marshall Fund’s senior award for excellence in European reporting. He was part of a team whose coverage of al-Qaida received an Overseas Press Club award and finalist honors for Harvard University’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2002. In 2001, he won Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for his career coverage of Latin America. His work in Latin America also won honors from the Overseas Press Club, Inter-American Press Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

At the L.A. Times, Sebastian served as a correspondent at the Mexican border, in South America and in Europe. His border reporting inspired two songs on Bruce Springsteen’s album The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995).

Sebastian is the author of three novels: Rip Crew (2018), The Convert’s Song (2014), and Triple Crossing (2011).He is also the author of Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border (1998). He speaks Spanish, French and Italian. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, studied at the University of Barcelona, and was born in Chicago.

The View From Counterterror’s Front Lines

Veteran European law enforcement officials, one of them Muslim, reflect on the roots of the Paris attacks, the tense aftermath and the debate about the effectiveness of counterterror forces.

Trail of Paris Attackers Winds to Terrorism’s Longtime Outpost

As a pre-dawn raid today outside Paris targets suspected mastermind of last week’s attack, his roots point to the shadow Belgium casts over the terror threat in Europe.

Sicario’s Dirty War on Mexican Cartels is Not Yet Reality

Denis Villeneuve’s movie gets much right about the borderlands but crosses the line into exaggeration. A veteran border correspondent compares the film’s underworld to the one he knows.

Two Who Moved Through Europe’s Revolving-Door Prisons Get Terrorist Designation

Authorities say former members of a Paris neighborhood gang ended up aiding the Charlie Hebdo attack, recruiting militant fighters to Syria.

Q&A: Can a Divided Europe Handle the Refugee Crisis?

Deaths at sea and a chaotic refugee influx reflect the failure of European Union leaders to settle on a common immigration policy, one of Italy’s top elected officials tells ProPublica.

Europe’s Revolving-Door Prisons Compound Growing Terror Threat

Sentences are short compared to the U.S.; two Charlie Hebdo attackers and another suspected plotter, now in Yemen, cycled through French jails.

The Hidden Intelligence Breakdowns Behind the Mumbai Attacks

After Edward Snowden, the government said its controversial surveillance programs had stopped a terrorist – David Coleman Headley. In “American Terrorist,” ProPublica and PBS “Frontline” show why the claim is largely untrue.

Alberto Nisman and Argentina’s History of Assassinations and Suspicious Suicides

Whether the crusading prosecutor's death is found to be a suicide or homicide, many Argentines probably won't believe it. The past has taught them to always look for the sinister explanation.

In 2008 Mumbai Attacks, Piles of Spy Data, But an Uncompleted Puzzle

Indian and British intelligence agencies monitored the online activities of a key plotter but couldn’t connect the dots.

A Commander of the Dos Erres Massacre Squad Gets 10 Years in Prison

A federal judge sentences Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes to the maximum term for lying on immigration forms about his role in the deaths of 250 people during the Guatemalan civil war.

Ex-Guatemalan Commando Guilty of Concealing Role in Massacre

Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, who obtained U.S. and Canadian citizenship, is the highest-ranking soldier convicted on charges related to the slaughter of 250 villagers during the country’s civil war.

‘Nos Ordenaron que Matáramos a Toda la Gente’

En un proceso histórico en Estados Unidos, excomandos del ejército guatemalteco dieron testimonio sobre la masacre de 250 residentes en la aldea selvática de Dos Erres durante la guerra civil.

‘They Ordered Us To Kill All The People’

At a historic U.S. trial, former Guatemalan army commandos testify about the massacre of 250 villagers in the jungle hamlet of Dos Erres during the country’s civil war.

In U.S. Trial of Massacre Suspect, a Rare Chance for Guatemalan Justice

A survivor of the 1982 Dos Erres massacre and former Guatemalan commandos who carried it out will testify against a former army lieutenant, a U.S. citizen who prosecutors say lied about his involvement.

Syria’s Jihadi Migration Emerges as Top Terror Threat in Europe, Beyond

Western support for the opposition in Syria’s bloody civil war raises fears of a blowback from the European extremists who’ve flocked to new land of jihad.

The Terror Threat and Iran's Inroads in Latin America

As some in Congress question a State Department report downplaying Iranian influence, intelligence officials say covert Iranian cooperation with Venezuela has been a gateway for hostile activities in the region.

How the NSA’s High-Tech Surveillance Helped Europeans Catch Terrorists

The debate about National Security Agency eavesdropping has left European investigators bemused. U.S. technology collects mountains of data that often aids their cases, they say. But there's no substitute for real human spying.

Defenders of NSA Surveillance Omit Most of Mumbai Plotter's Story

Officials say National Security Agency intercepts stopped David Coleman Headley's planned attack in Denmark, but sources say a tip from the British led to his capture after the U.S. failed for years to connect multiple reports of terror ties.

How Hezbollah Trained an Operative to Spy on Israeli Tourists

Sophisticated lessons in spycraft, explosives and arms detailed in a Cyprus court case that is forcing the European Union to consider designating the Lebanese-based group as a terrorist organization.

Boston Bombing Suspects Echo Home-Grown Terrorists in Madrid, London Attacks

Counterterror officials say the emerging portrait suggests the brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev slipped into Islamic extremism under the influence of Internet propaganda.

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