‘It Would Have Been Easier To Look Away’: A Journalist’s Investigation Into Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela
Off-camera, director Juan Ravell asks Venezuelan journalist Roberto Deniz, “Has this investigation been worth it?”
Deniz considers the question and then answers, “Professionally, I always say it’s been worth it.”
“And personally?” Ravell asks.
“That answer is more complicated,” Deniz says, adding, “… It would have been easier to look away.”
That conversation is part of FRONTLINE’s new documentary, A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela, made in collaboration with the independent Venezuelan news site Armando.info. The 90-minute documentary, which premieres on streaming platforms and PBS stations May 14 (check local listings), tells the story of a corruption scandal spanning from Venezuela to Europe to the U.S. and what has happened to the journalists who helped uncover the story, including Deniz.
As Deniz recalls in the excerpt above, “I didn’t know who I was investigating. I didn’t understand all the connections I would find or the sheer size of the operation.”
In the documentary, Deniz details how an Armando.info investigation into complaints of the low quality of food distributed by a Venezuelan government program uncovered a connection to Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman who was a close associate of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the biggest contractor for the food program.
The food program, known as Local Committees for Supply and Production (Comité Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción or CLAP), had been implemented by President Maduro in 2016 when the Venezuelan economy was in freefall and the country was consumed by hunger. As the documentary reveals, Deniz and his colleagues uncovered how the CLAP program was enriching Saab.
In the aftermath of Armando.info’s reporting in early 2017, Saab sued Deniz for criminal defamation and denied the facts of their reporting. Facing threats, harassment and possible jail time, Deniz and his editors made the hard decision to leave Venezuela.
Nonetheless, Deniz continued his reporting from exile. As he began to untangle the web of Saab’s business network, Deniz would come to find that he was not the only one investigating the Colombian.
Across the world, other journalists and governments were also looking into Alex Saab.
The journalists’ work helped expose a larger corruption scandal that reached into the highest ranks of Venezuelan government and spanned continents drawing the attention of law enforcement.
Pursuing this story made Deniz and his colleagues targets of the Maduro government. In addition to being sued for criminal defamation by Saab, Deniz has a warrant out for his arrest as a result of his reporting, and his family’s home was raided.
As Deniz notes in the excerpt, “Alex Saab’s story shows us how a regime maintains power.”
A Dangerous Assignment is a story about corruption in Venezuela, and what happens when journalists investigate the powerful.
For the full story, watch A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela. The documentary will be available to watch at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting May 14, 2024, at 7/6c. It will premiere on PBS stations (check local listings) and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel at 10/9c and will also be available on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. The documentary is an Assignment Film production for GBH/FRONTLINE in association with Armando.info. The director is Juan Ravell. The producer is Jeff Arak. The reporter is Roberto Deniz. The executive producer for Armando.info is Ewald Scharfenberg. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
