Paraguayan journalist wins first Bajo la Lupa investigative reporting grant
InquireFirst is excited to announce that Paraguayan journalist Aldo Benítez has been awarded our first investigative reporting grant for an environmental project which he will produce as part of our Bajo la Lupa initiative to support investigative journalism by Latin American journalists.
The judges said Benítez’s proposal “addresses matters of great public interest, which in one way or another directly impact people’s lives.”
They described his proposal as a “clear research project, with specific and relevant complaints, from which it can be inferred that the justice system has fallen short in the countries where the stories take place. The informative value of the investigation, the possible transnational impact and the environment in which it takes place make it necessary to provide all the support and collaboration possible to help this project come to fruition.”
Benítez, who is the deputy Sunday editor at La Nación in Paraguay, was hooked on journalism at the age of 19 when he attended a weekly “Young Journalists” program at the prestigious national newspaper in Asunción, ABC Color. He worked at ABC Color for more than a decade, covering the economy and sports. But he said his real interest lay in covering “the rivers, the forests, what was happening with the environment.”
Since joining La Nación in 2016, he has focused on investigative reporting and more recently has found ways to merge investigative and environmental reporting. For the past two years he has collaborated with Mongabay LatAm, an online news site focused on conversation and the environment.
In response to the call for proposals, Bajo la Lupa received numerous investigative project ideas from journalists in Mexico, Guatemala and South America. The panel of judges said that each of the proposals demonstrated the experience and knowledge of the Latin American journalists who participated.
The judges singled out Benítez’s proposal, saying it “has great narrative potential, as well as the possibility to expose environmental damage that has been going on for far too long with impunity.”
“These qualities made this project the winner,” the judges said.
Alejandra Gutiérrez Valdizán, a prominent reporter and editor with experience in written, audiovisual and digital journalism, will serve as project editor. She has focused her career on in-depth and narrative journalism, specializing in issues of human rights, transitional justice, the environment, and security and violence.
Her work, individually or as a team, has been a finalist for the Daniel Pearl Awards (2013), the Gabriel García Márquez Prize of the FNPI (2014), and the Inter-American Press Society (2013/2014). She has been a university professor, teaching investigative journalism courses and instructing workshops and trainings on communication, journalism and editorial and digital media management.
In December 2017, she co-founded Agencia Ocote in Guatemala, where she is the director. At Agencia Ocote she designs, coordinates and edits the journalistic projects of Agencia Ocote and manages the communication, investigation and editorial services of the Servicios Ocote company.
Bajo la Lupa is funded by Anthony S. Da Vigo, a California attorney who has successfully argued immigration cases of Latin American asylum seekers. Most recently, he funded the completion of a water project in Nicaragua, providing well water distribution to a church, a school and 65 homes.
This initiative, launched in June 2020, supports in-depth and original reporting by Latin American journalists to expose corruption and abuses of power. The objective of Bajo la Lupa is to encourage investigative journalism that reveals hidden actions by the powerful that affect the citizens of Latin America with the goal of promoting transparency and rule of law.
