Investigative journalist · Evidence first
Mónica Velásquez
Also known as: Mónica Velásquez Villacís · La Moni · Moni Velásquez · Monica Velasquez Villacis · Mónica Velásquez V.
Ecuadorian investigative journalist, known as La Moni. Winner of the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) 2024 Courage in Journalism Award. Co-author of El Gran Padrino and of the Fernando Villavicencio phone files; she hosts Boscán & La Moni with Andersson Boscán and leads EUREKA.
Whatever comes in has to be provable. She builds the case file: she cross-checks contracts, business registries, payrolls, minutes and chats until the story stands on its own.
In Nathaly Mafla's last walk, she reconstructed the student's route hour by hour using neighborhood cameras. With Andersson she co-authored Bribery Division, El Gran Padrino and the files from Fernando Villavicencio's phone, nine thousand chats that had to be verified contact by contact before a single line was published.
She also reports from where things happen: she went into the cellblocks of the Penitenciaría for Paz o plomo, covered the Russian invasion from Ukraine in its first weeks and walked the port of Manta on the trail of the Briones family.
In 2024 the International Women's Media Foundation gave her its Courage in Journalism Award for continuing to publish under threat and from exile. Today she hosts Boscán & La Moni and leads EUREKA, her project on entrepreneurship and business.
Awards and honors
- Courage in Journalism Award 2024, International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF)
- King of Spain Award for Narrative Journalism 2024, for El Gran Padrino
- Gabo Award finalist 2023, Coverage category, for El Gran Padrino
- Honorable mention, IAPA News Coverage Award 2023
- Fetisov Journalism Awards finalist 2023
- Honorable mention, Javier Valdez Latin American Investigative Journalism Awards 2023 (IPYS)
- Honorable mention, WJP Anthony Lewis Prize 2025
- EPPY Award 2019, for Bribery Division (ICIJ)
- Empoderadas Recognition 2023, Fundación Actívate Ecuador and the Ecuadorian Network of Jurists
- Breakthrough Journalist of the Year 2022, Fundación Pacífico del Ecuador
Fellowships, talks and books
- Speaker at the International Anti-Corruption Conference 2024 (Transparency International)
- Speaker at the World Women's Summit 2024
- Speaker at the World Political Communication Summit 2023: How a Government Falls
- Co-author of the book El Gran Padrino (2023)
- Contributor to Mujeres Admirables, vol. 3 (Women Breaking Barriers, 2024)
- Trainer at the Free Journalists Network (Red de Periodistas Libres)
- Founder and CEO of EUREKA Productions
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Social Communication, University of Guayaquil
- Degree in Business Engineering, University of Guayaquil
- Master's in Political Communication and Marketing, University of La Rioja
Bylined investigations (24)
- 2026The fall of the narco-mayorWhat Leonardo Toledo left behind in case he was killed
- 2026The military school that demanded silenceA chokehold, threats using his ID card and a principal who asked for silence
- 2026Nathaly Mafla's last walkAn hour and twenty minutes to a ravine in La Vicentina, and a case file full of contradictions
- 2026Progen's hidden evidenceThe Progen case evidence the prosecutor locked in a drawer
- 2026Connie Garcés and Carlos KadaThe model, the number two of Los Lagartos and the cartel's police officers
- 2026Srdán, the Serbian drug traffickerThe Serbian who named names: the cooperation agreement the Attorney General's Office keeps under seal
- 2026Narcomilicos: the sailors who stole the drugsThe seizure that was a robbery
- 2026The Albanian mafia in soccerHow money is laundered on Ecuador's soccer fields
- 2026The mayor of Playas and the narco's checksWhat we reported in January; on October 30 they raided his home
- 2026The Willy recordingsThe leader of Los Tiguerones explains how he made deals with the government and the police
- 2025The fall of Mario GodoyThe recordings that proved the Judiciary Council was applying pressure in favor of drug trafficking
- 2025The newborns of the Hospital UniversitarioTwelve deaths acknowledged, eighteen reported and a bacterium in the neonatal ward
- 2025The Briones dynastySix dead, a port and the ship nobody seizes
- 2025The fall of FitoThe bunker, the letter, the video call and the plane to Brooklyn
- 2024FV's secret filesWhat Fernando Villavicencio's phone held
- 2024The Albanian mafia's companiesThe cartel's legal businesses and the Attorney General's Office that did nothing
- 2023El Gran PadrinoNarco-politics in the Lasso government
- 2022The minister who sold jobsThe Energy Minister's recordings
- 2022The Danubio case: customs for saleThe sale of customs posts
- 2022Orders from the Judiciary CouncilCouncil members, pressured judges and a request made in the president's name
- 2022UkraineSpecial coverage from the war
- 2021The godmother and the narco-generalsThe generals who shut down León de Troya and the commander the drug traffickers called the godmother
- 2021Paz o PlomoThe first time anyone entered the cellblocks without state custody
- 2019Bribery Division: Odebrecht's secret filesThe leak of Odebrecht's bribes across Latin America