Miguel Marquez

Senior National correspondent

Miguel Marquez is a CNN senior national correspondent based in New York.
CNN Expansion 11/17/21  Miguel Marquez National Correspondent Profile

About

Miguel Marquez is a CNN senior national correspondent based in New York.

The award-winning reporter has broken news and covered several big stories both domestically and internationally. Marquez reported extensively on the Covid-19 pandemic from inside overwhelmed emergency departments and hospitals in NYC at its start; to overwhelmed hospitals in Texas over the summer; to western and rural areas rife with disease in the early autumn; to an enormous spike in cases in the winter; and finally, to the human and economic cost of the coronavirus across the US.

Marquez got extraordinary access to several hospitals including enough to report for a full hour on the horrendous situation in New York City early in the pandemic through the experience of doctors and staff at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

Marquez has also reported extensively on politics and the political realignment throughout the country. He covered protests and voters in the 2016 election and has gone on to cover swing-voters throughout the country, with major focus on the industrial Midwest and areas that flipped from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016 and how they voted in 2020.

Marquez also reported extensively on the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protest and aftermath that followed.

He led CNN’s coverage from the midst of rioting and unrest in Baltimore in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody. In 2016, Marquez accepted a Golden Nymph Award on behalf of CNN at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival for its coverage of Baltimore in 2015.

Internationally, Marquez also reported on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370; on Jose Alvarenga, the castaway who spent six months at sea; he reported from Rio de Janeiro for Pope Francis’ first international trip, World Youth Day, and from Rome on the Pope’s election.

Here at home, he deeply covered Colorado’s then nascent marijuana industry; and got an exclusive tour of a sophisticated border tunnel near San Diego, CA. In 2013, he covered ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner and his rampage across California; the rape of five Spanish tourists in Acapulco, Mexico; the Jodi Arias trial in Phoenix, Arizona; and the controversial book on Scientology “Going Clear.”

In 2012, Marquez reported a series of stories on the US presidential election from five swing states. He was part of the team winning an Emmy for CNN’s 2012 Election Night coverage. Marquez also reported on Mexico’s historic election, even obtaining a rare interview with then front-running candidate Enrique Pena Nieto. He reported a series from the Arctic on Shell Oil’s controversial decision to drill there; covered the anti-Islamic filmmaker Nakoula Nakoula and the aftermath of the attack of the US Consulate in Benghazi Libya. He also obtained the only TV interview with the ex-boyfriend who accused conservative Arizona sheriff Paul Babeu of harassment.

Prior to CNN, Marquez worked for ABC News in London and Los Angeles. His reporting there includes the Norway bombing and children’s camp massacre, the anti-government protests in Bahrain, during which he was beaten by riot police, and the struggle for Libya from both Tripoli and Benghazi. On one of his many assignments in Afghanistan, Marquez was the only TV reporter present for a major Marine operation in Now Zad, Helmand Province. Marquez also covered the offensive to regain control of the strategic city of Marja also in Helmand Province. He also made more than a dozen trips to Iraq where he covered the conflict at the height of the insurgency and the US led surge strategy that followed. Marquez was nominated for an Emmy award for his part in ABC’s reporting on the US targeted killing of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

His initial start with CNN was in April 2003, as anchor for CNN Headline News based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta. Marquez moved to Los Angeles to take up reporting duties for CNN in June 2003 where he covered everything from wildfires to the first Michael Jackson trial for CNN.

Before joining CNN, Marquez was a desk assistant at CBS News. His first reporting job was at WNBC in New York where he covered the daily events of the city. He moved to KSAZ in Phoenix, AZ where for three years he was a general assignment reporter.

Prior to pursuing a career in broadcast journalism, Marquez served as a legislative assistant to then US Representative Bill Richardson. Notably, while traveling to Pyongyang, North Korea as part of a congressional delegation, two US helicopter pilots were shot down north of the de-militarized zone and Marquez assisted in negotiations for their release. Marquez’s first job was as a researcher for the Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C.

Marquez has a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of New Mexico and an Associate of Arts degree from New Mexico Military Institute. Marquez was born in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.