TV investigative journalist Alicia Ortega of El Informe has joined the Car Wash Investigative Journalism Network (Investiga Lava Jato) that groups journalists from 11 Latin American and African countries. The team has since June 2017 been publishing their findings that follow up on Brazilian justice investigations on payment and bribes schemes of the Brazilian construction company. The network also investigates the financing of political campaigns and the ties to contracting in each country.
The network is made up of reporters from 15 countries in the Latin America and Africa. Also recently joining the group were Guillermo Draper and Raul Santopietro of the Semanario Busqueda in Uruguay; Nelfi Fernandez of the El Deber newspaper in Bolivia and Rafael Marques de Moerais of Angola.
The press release making the announcement highlights that since its start, ‘Investigate Lava Jato’ has enabled its members to analyze thousands of documents, build relevant databases of the countries under investigation, track offshore companies in tax havens, carry out dozens of requests for information to governments and Interview the key characters of the stories.
Most of the journalists had already collaborated in the global investigation that lead to the publishing of the Panama Papers that won a Pulitzer Prize. The journalists are also members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The project is coordinated by the director of Convoca in Peru, Milagros Salazar and Flavio Ferreira of the Folha de Sao Paulo in Brazil.
30 August 2018
