Research CONFIDENTIAL titled The private business network of the Ortega Murillo family: 22 companies at the expense of the State was awarded this Friday, November 11 with the third place in the Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism sponsored by the IPress and Society Institute (IPYS) held in Rio de Janeiro.
The recognition was received by the journalist from CONFIDENTIAL, Octavio Enríquez, representing the journalistic team that worked on the report.
The investigation described the existence of 22 private companies, in the name of 18 company executives and five lawyers —all close to the presidential family— through which a business network is managed that has had exponential growth after the return to power of Daniel Ortega, underpinned by the private appropriation of millionaire state cooperation from Venezuela, estimated at 5 billion dollars between 2007 and 2016.
? #NOW | CONFIDENCIAL’s investigation “Family Businesses” wins third place in the Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism COLPIN award, received in Rio de Janeiro by journalist @Cabistan On behalf of the entire journalistic team. pic.twitter.com/Q0e7GhRmd6
— Confidential Nicaragua (@confidencial_ni) November 12, 2022
COLPIN awards annually the best of investigative journalism in Latin America, with the support of IPYS, entity that promotes investigative journalism, freedom of expression and access to public information. More than 50 journalists from 15 countries in the region were invited to Rio de Janeiro to expose their investigations that unravel corruption, human rights violations, drug trafficking and environmental crisis.
The award-winning research CONFIDENTIAL, based on documents from the Public Registry and information from the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS), revealed for the first time, a partial map of the private business network of the Ortega Murillo, who are the shareholders-figureheads, and the shareholder control pattern exercised by these trusted family members.
The special report verified the use made by these companies at the hands of the presidential clan, of State funds through contracts with public institutions, as well as advantages obtained in exchange for the concession granted to the Xinwei telecommunications company (of the Chinese businessman Wang Jing), which gave them 30% of shares, as well as in the DNP-Petronic gas station network, and in the case of the state television station Channel 6, managed by a private company.
Based on the analysis of the INSS data, the nepotism of the Ortega Murillo family with relatives with positions in the State and others who receive salaries from the network companies, including the couple’s eight children, was confirmed.
Long live free journalism, Nicaragua! @confidencial_ni pic.twitter.com/nwB7Lce1Eq
– Octavio Enriquez (@Cabistan) November 12, 2022
Second CONFIDENCIAL award in three years
This is the second time in three years that CONFIDENTIAL is recognized in COLPIN. In 2020, the investigation of CONFIDENTIAL “Executions in the countryside: The massacre against peasants in Nicaragua“, by journalist Juan Carlos Bow, in partnership with the Latin American platform Connectas, was awarded third place in the Javier Valdez Latin American Prize for Investigative Journalism, sponsored by IPYS.
The report, published in three installments, revealed that thirty peasants and opponents of the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo were murdered between October 2018 and December 2019 and was the only finalist from Nicaragua and Central America, among the best investigations in the region. Latin American.
