Mongabay Latam’s multiyear, *award-winning **investigation that uncovered 67 clandestine airstrips in the Peruvian Amazon used for drug trafficking sent waves across the local media landscape. It drew attention to the Indigenous communities impacted by these illegal airstrips and the 15 Indigenous leaders who were killed defending their territory. To communicate this story to a wider audience, Mongabay Latam director Maria Isabel Torres and managing editor Alexa Vélez adapted it into an interactive live theater performance for an audience of 100. They join this week’s podcast to tell the “story behind the story” of what they, their reporters, and Indigenous leaders experienced during this investigation, and how their play adaptation brings that to the eyes and ears of a theatrical audience. “I think that all the journalists in these times, we are very worried [about] trying to find ways to understand our audience and to get their attention. We know that there are news avoiders. We know that there are fake news. So we are trying to look for different ways,” Torres says. The idea behind the concept of a live theatrical performance is to put the audience in the shoes of the reporters and Indigenous leaders on the ground who faced intimidation and threats, they tell me. And to communicate how reporters ultimately uncovered the truth. “Instead of saying that 15 Indigenous leaders were killed, we gave the audience banners with the photos of each of the Indigenous leader, asking them to stand up … at the beginning of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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