Karol Noroña is an Ecuadorian investigative journalist from Quito whose reporting on organized crime, prison massacres, and state collusion forced her into exile in 2023 after repeated death threats from members of the Lobos cartel. She returned to her hometown in June 2024 to present her book Ausencias, a collection of reportages on violence in Ecuador.
Speaking with Paris Calling, Noroña retraces how the 2018 kidnapping and murder of three El Comercio colleagues pushed her away from cultural journalism and into chronicling Ecuador’s descent from “island of peace” to Latin America’s most violent nation. She reflects on the deep human costs of the prison massacres, the rise of criminal groups as de facto power brokers, and the government’s militarized response.
From recounting the pain of exile and the loneliness of silence, to the resilience of families of victims who became her strongest allies, Noroña explains why she sees journalism as both an act of resistance and of love.

This is Paris Calling, where each week we encounter a notable person from somewhere around the world. We are breaking new ground by bringing non-English interviews into English with the use of AI tools that allow us to translate our guest’s words, without changing their voice. 

Founded in 2011, Worldcrunch is a pioneering global news outlet that brings the world’s best reporting into English. We deliver a truly international view on the news by working with the best media outlets to select, translate and adapt the stories that matter for a worldwide audience.