Wherever there is an urgent need to develop local and hyperlocal journalism—where public-service reporting, accountability, and sustainable independent news ecosystems are required—Marianela steps in. She brings deep experience training journalists in restricted environments and suppressed democracies, coordinating investigative teams, mapping news deserts, and driving initiatives in support of independent journalism committed to democracy.
Marianela is a journalist with more than 35 years of experience and holds a master’s degree in Hispanic American Studies and Literature from Sorbonne Nouvelle University (France). For the past 13 years, she has led IPYS Venezuela, an independent organization that protects freedom of expression and promotes excellence in journalism. Under her leadership, IPYS has strengthened collaborative networks of reporters across Venezuela, formed more than 400 journalists, and supported the production of award-winning investigative work—finalists and winners of international awards such as the Gabo Award and the Roche-FNPI Award.
She is the author of El rapto de la odalisca—the investigative story behind the theft of a Henri Matisse masterpiece—and Soy Bárbara, soy especial, the life story of a woman with Down syndrome. Marianela received the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, becoming the only Latin American recipient in 2023. She actively serves on global advisory boards and award juries in journalism, human rights, and freedom of expression. She is responsible for the IPYS Venezuela Awards, the most prestigious recognition of independent investigative journalism in the country, now in its 15th annual edition.
