Shasta Darlington is CNN's Brazil Bureau Chief and an international correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro.

She moved to Brazil in 2011 to open the new bureau there and spearhead coverage of Latin America.

Darlington covered some of the biggest stories in the region in recent years, including the 2016 Olympic Games, the outbreak of the Zika virus, the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Darlington is a journalist with 20 years of experience throughout Latin America and Europe. Before fronting CNN's Brazil operations, she reported for the network in Havana, Cuba, covering a wide range of stories from Fidel Castro's illness, his handover to his brother Raul Castro, and the first years of his succession as well as the devastating 2008 hurricanes.

She contributed to the network's award-winning coverage of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. And while based in Havana, she travelled extensively to Brazil, where she covered the 2011 floods in Rio de Janeiro state and the 2010 Presidential elections.

Before joining CNN as a field producer in 2006, Darlington worked as a correspondent for Reuters in Italy for four years. During this time, she reported on the death of Pope John Paul II, the tumultuous Silvio Berlusconi term, and the Italian leadership of the European Union.

From 1997-2001, Darlington worked as a correspondent for Bloomberg and then Reuters in Brazil, where she covered the devastating economic crisis, drug wars, and prison riots. Before moving to Brazil, she was a news assistant for the Los Angeles Times in Mexico City and covered many stories like the peso crisis and border drug wars.

She holds Bachelors of Arts in English literature and Spanish Studies from Middlebury College and is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.