This media organization began in 2010 with a focus on investigative journalism. rEwald Scharfenberg, its director, says that at that time, he led the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) in Venezuela. They were emphasizing programs that sought to promote research journalism in the Caribbean country. When Wikileaks Venezuela was published by La Semana of Bogotá, Alfredo Meza, co-founder of Armando.info—went there, and published some reports.

The extraction and illegal trade of minerals in the Venezuelan Amazon, as well as murky agreements between China and Venezuela for the construction of the Gran Mission Housing Venezuela project, were among the subjects of the first phase of this media outlet's dedication to investigation.

Some international support that did not materialize meant that publication was sporadic until 2014, when they had a greater number of donations from individuals and Open Society Institute. Starting on July 20 of that year, they began publishing investigative journalism each week.. Ewald said that since the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016, visits to this digital media organization tripled, generating significant international impact. However, he points out that this was not the first participation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). At the beginning of 2015, the portal made waves with an investigation that revealed Venezuela ranked third among countries with money deposited secretly at the HSBC Bank (14.8 billion dollars).

In 2018 four journalists from Armando.info had to leave the country after revealing potential corruption in a food import program (CLAP), because they did not have judicial and procedural protection.

That same year, Poliszuk received the Knight Journalism International Prize, awarded by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and backed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which recognizes journalism that has had an impact.

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Last updated date: October 2025

Location:
Venezuela
Year the organization started publishing:
2014
Languages:
Spanish
Type of coverage:
National

Content

Editorial coverage:
Generalist, focused on multiple topics
Type of content produced by theme:
Science
Environment
Politics
Law and crime
Society and human rights
Refugees
Migration
War crimes and transitional justice
Journalism genres:
Investigative journalism
Journalism coverage types and techniques:
Breaking news
Data journalism
Crowdsourcing
Cross-border journalism
Collaborative journalism
Tech platforms and other mediums used:
Website
Newsletter
Social media platforms
YouTube

Audience and reach

Social media audience

Facebook number of followers:
49,000
Twitter number of followers:
203,700
Instagram number of followers:
82,700
YouTube number of followers:
6,000

Management and team

Founders

Female:
0
Male:
3
Founders:
Alfredo Meza, Ewald Scharfenberg, Joseph Poliszuk
Directors:
Ewald Scharfenberg, Joseph Poliszuk, Roberto Deniz

Team

Full-time employees:
15
Part-time employees:
1
Freelancers or consultants:
2
Volunteers:
0

Business structure and revenue sources

Organization tax status:
Non-profit
All revenue sources reported by media leaders:
Grants
Audience support / reader revenue
Other
Grants from private donor organisations
Grants from foreign governments
Google Adsense
Programmatic ad networks
Branded content or native advertising
Local advertising sold by own team
Content development for other media
Content development for other non-journalistic companies
Crowdfunding campaigns
Individual donations
The primary source of revenue reported by media leaders:
Content development for other media
The second most important revenue source reported:
Individual donations
Others revenue sources:
Direct microdonations or individual donors

Transparency

Doesn’t publish information about annual revenue
Publishes the names of donors
Has an ethics policy / manual
Doesn’t publish an ethics policy / manual
Has a data privacy policy
Doesn’t publish a data privacy policy
Has a whistleblower policy
Doesn’t publish a whistleblower policy
Doesn’t have a complaints policy
Doesn’t have a sexual harassment or institutional violence policy
Is signed up to a press regulator, trust initiative, or part of a press association
Publishes up to date information about its team

This media outlet is part of our directory because it meets SembraMedia’s inclusion criteria: it produces original content, serves the public interest, and works with independence and transparency. This profile was developed using information provided directly by the media outlet, through surveys or interviews. We aim to keep the information current, but SembraMedia does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness, and recommends verifying any key details with the media organization.

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