International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Angel Paez, Peru, is the founder of Peru's first investigative reporting team and has been working as its director at La Republica since 1990, exposing government corruption, international drug trafficking, and clandestine warfare.

Angel Paez, Peru

Paez has uncovered secret arms deals of the Peruvian government, including the purchase of fighter aircraft from Belarus and tanks from Russia during Peru’s 1995-98 border dispute with Ecuador. He also has investigated the inner workings of a tax-free, government-sponsored organization allegedly used to launder money from Japan for the re-election campaigns of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. As a result of his reporting, Paez has been subjected to intense government pressure, including attacks by state-sponsored media, and death threats. In 1993, Paez’s investigative team was awarded Peru’s National Human Rights Award for its campaign to publicize massacres of peasants and the arbitrary detention of people falsely accused of terrorism. Paez won the 1998 Samuel Chavkin Prize for Integrity in Latin American Journalism and the same year was invited to Washington, D.C., to study at the Center for Hemispheric Defense. Paez has also been a correspondent for Proceso of Mexico, Clarin of Argentina, La Tercera of Chile, and Asahi Shimbun of Japan.