Paola Margot UGAZ CRUZ

Investigative journalist, editor and writer Paola Ugaz continued to face judicial harassment in 2024, with an ongoing investigation for alleged ‘illicit enrichment’ begun in 2023. On 4 September 2024, Ugaz testified at trial hearing. Afterwards the interrogation, the judicial authorities ordered her telephone company to hand over the telephone records and geolocation data of the journalist for the period 2013 to 2020, thereby lifting the confidentiality of the journalist's communications and violating her security and that of her sources of information. This set a dangerous precedent for journalists in Peru, with Ugaz being the first reporter in her country whose communications have been monitored and ‘seized’. 

Since 2018, Ugaz has faced a campaign of harassment, threats and at least five defamation lawsuits, including allegations of crimes, due to her investigations into corruption as well as into physical, psychological and sexual abuse within the Peruvian religious organisation Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, which she has conducted with Pedro Salinas since 2010. Ugaz began to receive complaints and lawsuits following the announcement she was publishing a new book about the group’s financial management. PEN International has campaigned for an end to her harassment over several years (see Case Lists 2020 – 2023/2024).  

Investigative journalist, editor and writer Paola Ugaz, born in 1974, is the co-author, along with Pedro Salinas, of the book Mitad monjes, mitad soldados (Half Monks, Half Soldiers) which uncovered a huge scandal within Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana. A correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC, she was one of the recipients of the International Women in Media Awards in 2021. She was awarded the Latin American Studies Association Media award in 2024. 

Update: The Pope dissolved Sodalicio de Vida in January 2025, after an investigation uncovered sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its top members. The Pope based his decision on the research of journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas.