This article contains material translated from the Spanish-language article on the topic.
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OjoPúblico is a digital venue for investigative journalism and new Peruvian narratives, founded in 2014 by journalists Oscar Castilla, Nelly Luna Fabiola Torres, and David Hidalgo, as well as the programmer Antonio Cucho. It investigates issues concerning human rights, corruption, drug trafficking, environment, health and transparency, among others. It also runs the OjoBiónico fact-checking page.
OjoPúblico's series on illegal gold mining in South America was translated and reposted by Insight Crime, an online publication on organized crime in South America.
Panama Papers
OjoPúblico is one of the news organizations participating in the Panama Papers investigation into the data leaked from the Mossack Fonseca law offices.
Editor and founder Fabiola Torres López told the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas that some newspapers in the Grupo El Comercio chain, which owns about 80% of Peruvian media, initially belittled the investigation's findings and covered the story themselves as a hacking incident rather than whistle-blower disclosures.
While prosecutors and tax authorities opened an investigation into the reports, which came out just before a presidential election, political discourse largely remained silent on the disclosure of contributions from a Delaware company set up by Mossack Fonseca to leading candidate Keiko Fujimori, she said.
The news outlet also reported as part of the Panama Papers investigation that Nicolás Lúcar and his wife Frances Crousillat, the producers of the talk show Señora León featuring Mexican actress and singer Laura León, had opened an offshore company to avoid taxes in Peru.
OjoPúblico also discovered as part of the Panama Papers investigation that Mossack Fonseca counted among its clients Ment Dijkhuizen Cáceres Floor, a Peruvian of Dutch descent who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for money laundering following the seizure of 1.6 tons of cocaine in the Netherlands. Dijkhuizen had already fallen under suspicion and been questioned by the Peruvian drug police, (Dirandro), in connection with 200kg of cocaine discovered in a 2003 shipment from his asparagus enterprise to a Spanish port. Massack Fonseca helped him to create an elaborate network of shell companies.