Matt Rivers is an international correspondent for CNN based in Mexico City.

He has covered a number of key stories including the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in Mexico and Brazil, where he has spent several weeks this year reporting on the country’s collapsing healthcare system and delays in the vaccine rollout, as well as the immigration debate at the US-Mexico border.

Rivers recently investigated a human smuggling chain in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez, witnessing first-hand how smugglers help people cross migrants into the US illegallly while often putting those migrants at great personal risk along the way.

Previously based in the network’s Beijing bureau, Rivers reported on major news stories across Asia Pacific including the Hong Kong protests, the US-China trade war, Taiwan’s historic legalization of same-sex marriage and China’s relationship with the Trump administration, playing a key role in CNN’s coverage of former Pres. Trump’s first official trip to Asia.

In 2019 Rivers investigated mass abuse of Muslims in western China, where millions of people have been detained for their religious beliefs. Rivers and his team traveled to Kazakhstan and China’s Xinjiang Province for this three-part series, speaking to ex-detainees and camp workers who accuse the Chinese government of torturing the detainees while undergoing political indoctrination. China went to great lengths to thwart CNN’s investigation including harassing Rivers inside his hotel, setting up spontaneous road blocks on key highways and constantly following the team while they were on the ground.

In 2018 he was granted rare access to Myanmar while reporting on the Rohingya refugee crisis, visiting areas of Rakhine State for CNN. Rivers also spoke to the wives of jailed Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo following their imprisonment in the country.

Since joining CNN in 2015, Rivers has also covered major breaking stories across the world including the rescue of 12 boys and their coach from Tham Luang cave in Thailand and the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami, which devastated the Indonesian city of Palu. He has also conducted high-profile interviews with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Baidu CEO Robin Li and Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Rivers has reported extensively on Chinese and North Korean relations, including Kim Jong Un’s visits to Beijing and the continued tensions across the South China Sea. He has also reported on technological advancements across China for CNN Business, including the expansion of Shenzhen into a tech hub and developments in the US-China trade war.

Prior to CNN, Rivers was a reporter for CBS 3 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; KSAT-TV in San Antonio, Texas; and KTSM-TV in El Paso, Texas.

Known for specializing in breaking news and investigations, his three-part series into alleged campaign abuses by the Sheriff of San Antonio led to an investigation by the Texas Rangers. He has also reported extensively from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rivers graduated with a dual degree from Syracuse University in New York where he majored in broadcast journalism and Spanish. Rivers can also shoot and edit his own work.