2025
Podcast investigation
The Shadow of El Dorado
A seven-part investigation tracing blood gold from Segovia into global supply chains and showing how armed groups, corruption, political power and multinational capital blur the legal and illegal.
Approach
Reporting organised crime and conflict from the ground up.
More than twenty years of journalism inform how I investigate, listen and communicate. My reporting centres people living with the consequences of armed conflict, organised crime and public policy.
My journalism examines how organised violence is experienced by children, teenagers, families and communities across Latin America.
Long-form investigations and field reporting connect individual lives with criminal markets, armed governance, state policy and the social conditions that make violence possible.
Journalism also shapes my research practice: listening closely, testing competing accounts, working ethically in dangerous settings and communicating complexity clearly.
Selected journalism
20 entries
2025
Investigation
Colombia’s ‘Teenage’ Mercenaries Are on the Front Line in Sudan’s Savage War
Investigates the recruitment of Colombians, including teenagers, into Sudan’s civil war and the networks, deception, deaths and geopolitical interests behind it.
2024
Investigation
The Rise and Fall of El Negro Willy, Ecuador’s Prison-Guard Mafia Boss
Traces a former prison guard’s rise to leadership of Los Tiguerones through prison corruption, criminal governance, gang fragmentation and escalating violence.
2024
Investigation
‘There Were Men Everywhere with Guns – They Shot My Mum in Front of Me’
Reports from Port-au-Prince on children living through gang violence, displacement, hunger and collapsing services, centring testimony and everyday survival.
2024
Investigation
I Met Ecuador’s Notorious Gangs – Where Children Become Ruthless Killers
Field reporting from Esmeraldas on teenagers drawn into violence between armed groups and a hard-line state response.
2024
Documentary
The 12-Year-Old Assassin Caught Up in Ecuador’s Gang War
A field documentary following young Los Tigres members in Esmeraldas and examining recruitment, coercion, survival, organised crime and military response.
2024
Investigation
The Diary of a Teenage Sicario
‘I Murdered 30 People – I Did It to Build a Future for Myself’
A decade of contact with a young sicario in Caucasia reveals contract killing as survival, status and an imagined future shaped by social conditions and constrained choices.
2023
Investigation
How a Weekend of Mass Murder Stripped a Nation of Its Rights
Examines El Salvador’s state of emergency, mass detention and weakened legal protections, including the impact on teenagers without gang involvement and their families.
2022
Investigation
How Albanian Gangs Took Control of Britain’s Cocaine
Follows the cocaine supply chain between Ecuador and Britain, connecting consumer demand with violence, exploitation and debts that draw teenagers into crime.
2021
Investigation
Narcos and Necromancy
Turf Wars and Black Magic in Colombia
Investigates witchcraft, ritual and spiritual protection in drug-gang disputes and how fear and symbolism reinforce identity, authority and territorial power.
2021
Analysis
Internal Divisions Hamper Peace Overtures From Colombia’s ELN
Analyses how decentralised command, regional differences and competing internal positions obstruct attempts to negotiate an end to Colombia’s remaining guerrilla conflict.
2019
Analysis
Colombia’s Longest Insurgency and the Last Chance for Peace?
Examines the ELN’s internal divisions, decentralised structure and competing visions for ending Colombia’s longest-running insurgency.
2019
Analysis
Why Colombia’s Dissident FARC Rebels Are Taking Up Arms Again
Explains what the return to arms by senior former FARC commanders revealed about failed implementation, insecurity and the fragility of the 2016 peace agreement.
2019
Interview
‘People Are Tired of War, Including Us’
A Rare Interview with Colombia’s ELN Commander
A rare interview exploring the ELN’s motivations, its position on renewed peace negotiations and the internal and political obstacles to ending the conflict.
2026
Opinion
Si Ecuador está en guerra, sus adolescentes no pueden ser solo criminales
Argues that Ecuador cannot invoke armed conflict for extraordinary security measures while treating recruited teenagers only as criminals; it must address prevention, protection, disengagement and reintegration.
2025
Opinion
Cómo se forma un sicario
Examines how sicarios are formed through abandonment, fear, exclusion and repeated exposure to violence—not simply individual criminal choice.
2025
Opinion
Cuando los niños están armados, los adultos son responsables
Argues that responsibility for children’s involvement in armed violence lies with adults who recruit, exploit and fail to protect them.
2023
Opinion
Asesinato de cabecilla del Clan del Golfo refleja divisiones internas
Shows how the killing of a senior commander exposed internal rivalries and challenged the idea of the Clan del Golfo as a unified criminal hierarchy.
2023
Opinion
La JEP reconoció a víctimas menores de edad de la fuerza pública
Examines the JEP’s recognition of children associated with Colombia’s public forces as victims of armed conflict, extending responsibility beyond recruitment by illegal armed groups.
2021
Opinion
¿Por qué es muy prematuro hablar del fin de los Caparros?
Argues that killing commanders does not dismantle an armed group sustained by territorial control, illicit economies, continuing recruitment and established leadership.