Armando.Info

Armando.info was officially created in July 2014. However, starting in 2010, it had published online stories under the brand, as it initially emerged as an initiative from the Institute of Press and Society of Venezuela (Ipys Venezuela) led by journalists Emilia Díaz-Struck and Ewald Scharfenberg, who then worked in that organization. Two milestones during that preliminary stage were the publication of a series of pieces on Wikileaks in Venezuela, processed and published in conjunction with the Semana de Bogotá magazine and the journalist Carlos Eduardo Huertas; and in-depth coverage of the illicit trafficking of coltan ore in southern Venezuela, the first collaboration with ICIJ in Washington. Both of these projects were carried out in 2012.

This experience gradually generated more confidence about the feasibility of converting the project into a formal media organization, led by an initial nucleus of journalists who had participated in the training activities of Ipys Venezuela: Emilia Díaz-Struck, Maye Primera, Alfredo Meza, Joseph Poliszuk, and Ewald Scharfenberg. The first two emigrated, so the remaining three founded Armando.info.

Although reality has forced the team to adjust some of the editorial and business parameters of Armando.info over the course of 10 years of work, some fundamental premises of its origin remain unchanged: The use of investigative journalism techniques to cover stories that otherwise could not be detected, deciphered and exposed; focus on stories of state or business corruption, organized crime, and human rights, that involve representatives of power, whether constituted or factual; and an approach that's collaborative (in order to fully cover complex stories) and transnational (to effectively follow the dynamics, also cross-border, of corruption and organized crime.

The case that represented a boom for brand awareness among the Venezuelan public was that of Alex Saab, a merchant of Colombian origin who became the primary contractor for the administration of Nicolás Maduro. When Alex Saab was arrested in Cape Verde at the request of the United States in 2020, Maduro officially recognized his existence and began a public campaign for his release. The public recognized the work of Armando.info, which had been covering Saab and his crimes since 2015. In fact, the coverage forced the three founders of the site and Roberto Deniz, the reporter in charge of the series and recently incorporated Director, to go into exile in 2017.

Even in the midst of the demanding conditions for practicing free journalism in Venezuela—which include electronic blockades, threats of legal action, etc.—studies have proven that today Armando.info is accredited in the public perception (Venezuelans within the country, as well as expatriates) as the only national site specializing in investigative journalism and the media organization where stories "that do not appear anywhere else" are found.

Armando.info has obtained the support of important institutional donors such as FPU, OSF, Luminate, NED, and Internews, and has become a member or ally of global organizations such as Occrp, GIJN, and IWPR. Its international awards in recognition of the media organization's quality include the Latin American Prize for Investigative Journalism in 2017 (it has also been a finalist several times); the honorable mention of the Maria Moors Cabot Award in 2019; the 2023 Global Shining Award; the Lorenzo Natali Prize of the European Union, 2023; and others.