Gustavo Gorriti

Gustavo Andrés Gorriti Ellenbogen (; born 4 February 1948) is a Peruvian journalist known for his reporting on rebel groups, government corruption, and drug trafficking. In 2011, the European Journalism Centre described him as having "been awarded more prizes than probably any other Peruvian journalist".

Journalism in Peru Gorriti first gained fame as a journalist in the 1980s reporting on Peru's internal conflicts between the government and terrorist groups such as the Shining Path.

While working for the weekly Caretas in 1992, he reported links between the government and narcotics traffickers, particularly implicating Vladimiro Montesinos, President Alberto Fujimori's "strong man". Anger over the articles led a commando squad from the Peruvian army to break into his home and abduct him during the 1992 Peruvian constitutional crisis, in which Fujimori dissolved Congress and detained several opposition figures. In November 2021, his former adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the kidnapping.

Exile in US and Panama Following his release, Gorriti left Peru.

That year, he reported that a bank that had recently failed had been laundering money for Colombia's Cali Cartel. He also alleged that some of the President Ernesto Pérez Balladares' appointments were guided by nepotism,

Prensa publisher and editor I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr. reported that the paper had discovered that the Panamanian cabinet had received news of a death threat against Gorriti; rather than relay the threat, the government had decided to expel Gorriti to preserve the nation's image.

A second charge was filed against Gorriti and three other Prensa journalists in 1999 for an article in which he reported that a drug trafficker had donated to the campaign of Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, with Sossa himself supervising the investigation.

CPJ again issued a statement in his support, stating that the case "highlight[ed] the need to repeal criminal defamation and libel statutes in Panama". The case was dismissed by an appeals court in 2003.

In March 2001, Pérez Balladares' former foreign minister, Ricardo Alberto Arias, forced out Gorriti and was elected La Prensa s new president by a majority of shareholders. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which had awarded Gorriti its International Press Freedom Award for his work with the paper,

IDL Reporteros After leaving Panama, Gorriti returned to Peru, working for the daily newspaper Peru21 as well as becoming the journalist in residence at the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL).

In 2009, he launched IDL-Reporteros, an experimental investigative journalism site. A nonprofit endeavor funded by NGOs, the site employed four full-time journalists as of 2011.

Personal life Gorriti is of Basque and Italian descent through his father, being distantly related to José Ignacio de Gorriti, and of Romanian Jewish descent from his mother. He is married with three children. He is a six-time national judo champion.

In 1998, he won the International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which honors journalists who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment. Premio Nuevo Periodismo CEMEX+FNPI for lifetime achievement Tribute. King of Spain award in 1996 for his work as director in La Prensa, Panama’s then-foremost newspaper. Named Knight Press Freedom Fellow in 2025.

Books by Gorriti

La calavera en negro. Editorial Planeta Perú. 2006. "Latin America's internal wars". Journal of democracy. Invierno de 1991, 2 (1): 85-98. Petroaudios. Lima: Planeta, 2009