Hatzel Vela is an award-winning journalist and politics reporter for NBC6. Fully bilingual, he will also contribute to NBC6 sister station Telemundo 51. Vela joined the team in April of 2024, but debuted on-air in September 2024.
Prior to NBC6, Vela spent ten years at WPLG-Local 10 in Miami. In January 2017, Vela was the first local television journalist in the country to move to Cuba and cover the island from the inside.
During his time living and working on the island, he covered some of the most significant stories in post-Fidel Castro Cuba, including an exclusive interview with Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raul Castro. He also lived through and covered a category 5 Hurricane Irma as it battered the island, and reported on the damage left behind.
Prior to moving to Cuba and after the U.S. and Cuba renewed diplomatic relations in December 2014, Vela covered several of the major stories from the communist island, including the historic visits of Pope Francis in 2015 and President Barack Obama in 2016.
Vela was one of the first to report the death of Cuban President Fidel Castro, then eight hours later was on the ground in Havana gathering reaction from the Cuban people.
After returning from Cuba in the fall of 2019, Vela took on the education beat and covered many of the big issues facing local students and educators during the pandemic.
Prior to moving back to South Florida, Vela worked at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, where he was part of an Emmy Award-winning team for a special on the election of Pope Francis. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his work on immigration, a beat he created for himself.
Before Washington, he was a reporter at ABC affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix. There he covered the immigration protests that followed the passing of one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration measures at the state level, the shooting in Tucson that injured U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six and closely followed the federal bench trial of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Vela started his on-air reporting career in Charleston, South Carolina at WCSC-TV, the CBS affiliate.
Born in Nicaragua, Vela migrated to the U.S. as a child and grew up in a bilingual household in Miami. He is a graduate of Miami Coral Park Senior High School and received his Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Florida International University (FIU).
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