Daniela Quintero is a Colombian journalist and sociologist who develops and edits cross-border investigations as investigations editor at Mongabay Latam.Her work combines field reporting with official records, environmental databases, satellite imagery, scientific literature, and legal documents.Quintero has reported on glass-eel fishing in the Dominican Republic and the smuggling and laundering of illegally mined Amazonian gold through Venezuela.Quintero spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in the Colombian Amazon in July 2025 about her career, investigative methods, and interest in environmental journalism.
High gold prices have fueled illegal mining across the Amazon. As Brazil tightened controls on the trade, criminal groups found another route through Venezuela, where it could be laundered and then exported overseas, according to a Mongabay investigation published last year.
Documenting the trade required journalists in three countries to work together—an approach Daniela Quintero considers essential because environmental crimes rarely respect national borders.
Near the Mavicure Hills with residents of the El Venado Indigenous Reserve. Credit: Rhett A. Butler
As investigations editor at Mongabay Latam, Bogotá-based Quintero develops projects that combine field reporting with official records, satellite imagery, scientific papers, and legal documents. She also coordinates Mongabay’s Nature Crimes Fellowship, working with journalists from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru on investigations in the Amazon and the Pacific.
