By Alejandro Martínez
The launching of news site Plan V was quick – almost as quick as the first threats the new publication received.
In June, after the surprising closure of investigative magazine Vanguardia in Ecuador – one of the few publications to keep a critical voice since President Rafael Correa took office – editor-in-chief Juan Carlos Calderón and his team agreed to stay together and start a new project.
The new publication went online on Sept. 20, and the pressures followed soon after. On Sept. 26 Calderón received his first death threat at Plan V, which came in the form of a text message that warned him not to continue investigating some state companies' allegedly corrupt insurance practices.
Four days later, a consultant for an insurance businessman in Ecuador warned Calderón that he could be killed for covering that topic, non-profit Fundamedios reported. Last week, two individuals visited his home and asked a security guard if his house was on sale.
“They came to the residential area and asked the guards directly if I was selling my house, which I also consider a warning because my house is not for sale and it was the only house they inquired about," Calderón told Fundamedios.
Calderón reported the threats to the authorities and shortly after Ecuador's Interior minister José Serrano called him to offer him armed protection. Police officers are currently stationed outside Calderón's home and authorities are investigating the threats, Fundamedios said.
"It's the first time I've filed a formal complaint in my (25 years) as a journalist," Calderón told news agency AFP.
Plan V is born
Calderón and his team launched Plan V three months after the directors of Vanguardia decided to close the magazine after the approval of Ecuador's controversial communications law last June.
The journalists working at Vanguardia found themselves without a job from one day to the other, but they didn't waste any time. The team sought out the help of Fundamedios, which offered them a space to continue working on their investigations and help them find an office for their new project.
With the help of several small donations that will help them close the year, the team launched the new digital publication and named it Plan V, in honor of the fallen magazine and the optimistic connotations of the letter.
“Plan V can be Plan Victory, Plan Vigor,” said Fundamedios director César Ricaurte, who continues to support the new project during its first steps.
Ricaurte said that the threats that Plan V faces so early on are the result of its stated purpose to continue Vanguardia's mission and focus on covering public corruption. In the current political situation in Ecuador, he said, that's just what the country needs.
“Plan V is a baby that was born to refresh Ecuador's journalistic environment and give it back some of the vitality that the constant attacks from those in power have taken away from it," he said. "The question is whether they will let this child have oxygen and breathe or if the powerful will try to suffocate it quickly."
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
