Luis Ramirez interviews a Burmese monk, whose face has been obscured to protect his identity following a crackdown on democracy reform efforts

Luis Ramirez is VOA's Jerusalem correspondent after having been Southeast Asia correspondent in Bangkok since August 2007. 

Prior to Bangkok, Luis served as VOA’s Beijing bureau chief, where he filed award-winning reports on China’s internal issues such as rural unrest, the environment, and changes in the Communist Party leadership, as well as its growing economy and its rising world profile. As part of his beat, he ventured a couple of times into North Korea for reporting that garnered him some awards. 

Luis began his overseas reporting career as VOA’s West Africa correspondent in Abidjan, bringing news of coup attempts, civil wars, political assassinations, child labor, ethnic and religious unrest, as well as peaceful democratic elections in nations including Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria. He was also on the scene to tell of the difficult return to peace in Sierra Leone.

Luis came to VOA in 1999 after working for a number of years as a reporter for an all-news radio station in his hometown of Los Angeles, California. His work also included extensive coverage of U.S. Mexico border issues, and took him to Mexico, Central America, and Cuba.