Reporter Enrique Flor, a leader in investigative journalism, dies in Miami. He was 50
El Nuevo Herald reporter Enrique Flor, a prominent figure in investigative journalism in Spanish, died Sunday night at the Jackson Memorial Perdue Medical Center in Miami after suffering from multiple strokes. He was 50 years old.
The winner of several awards for his investigative reporting in Latin America and South Florida, Flor stood out for his sense of justice, his tenacity when investigating corruption — and for denouncing and holding accountable politicians and institutions that deceive people.
“Enrique was proud to do investigative journalism against corruption in Miami. He always told us, ‘Be brave, because as a journalist you must do your duty, and your duty is to question everything,’ ” said reporter Erika Carrillo, who began collaborating with Flor when she was a reporter for América Tevé and later for Univisión.
Flor, Carrillo, and Brenda Medina, then a reporter for el Nuevo Herald, developed the Condos de pesadilla (Condo Nightmares) project, a series done in collaboration between el Nuevo Herald and Univisión. It uncovered massive fraud and corruption in the elections for the board of directors of condominium associations, embezzlement of funds and fraudulent bids to award contracts.
Besides winning several awards and giving a voice to condo residents, Condo Nightmares resulted in a bipartisan bill that changed state law regarding condominiums.
The investigation started in 2015 when “complaints were received from a condominium in the Fontainebleau neighborhood that an election had been stolen and that $4 million were at stake,” recalled Carrillo, who with Flor and Medina reviewed 1,000 votes and signatures and discovered that there were 200 false signatures.
“When we published the first story, the residents of the condominium protested and the board resigned,” said Carrillo.
Medina attributes the first investigations into condominiums to Flor’s “journalistic nose.” While covering complaints from the community, he began noticing and documenting patterns of problems in condo associations.
“He instilled in us the importance of collaborating with all our colleagues, even from other media. Thanks to his initiative, we worked with Carrillo like ‘little ants,’ ” as he always said.
After knocking on thousands of doors and convincing affected individuals to denounce the irregularities, Condo Nightmares achieved wide exposure in South Florida media and began its journey to change condominium laws in the state.
Several legislators approached Carrillo, Medina and Flor asking how they could help. State Sen. René García and then-Sen. José Javier Rodríguez guided the bill in the Florida Senate and then-Rep. José Félix Díaz did so in the House.
In May 2017, the first reform to the condominium law was approved in Tallahassee. This brought great joy to Flor, who was then recovering from his first stroke, which partially affected his mobility.
Condo Nightmares won first place for news reporting in the Florida Society of News Editors contest in 2017. It also won a President’s Award that year, which is presented by the McClatchy media company, the parent company of el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald.
“With his passing, the Herald and the world of journalism have lost a great name. We have lost a compassionate man, who will be greatly missed,” said Alex Mena, managing editor of el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald.
“Walking the halls, Kike never missed an opportunity to say hello and strike up a conversation,” added Mena, highlighting his optimism and willingness to help.
From Lima to Miami, a life dedicated to journalism
Flor studied Journalism at the University of Lima and worked for more than a decade in the investigative unit of Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.
“He was a great reporter. He had insight and persistence. When he proposed something, he had already studied it and, finally, at the end of the search, it was generally successful,” said journalist Ricardo Uceda, who called him to join El Comercio’s investigative team in 1995.
“’You’re taking the best,’” then-Managing Editor Alejandro Miró Quesada told me,” said Uceda, indicating that in addition to Flor’s qualities as a professional, upon hearing the news of his death, he stated, “He was one of the individuals with the highest human quality I have ever met.”
Flor came to South Florida with his family in 2004. He worked at a valet-parking gig until he resumed his journalism career at El Sentinel, the Spanish section of the Sun Sentinel newspaper.
He started at el Nuevo Herald in 2010, invited by the newspaper’s chief editor at that time, Manny García, who knew of Flor’s reputation as an investigative journalist in Peru.
“The impact that his work has had in South Florida remains as his legacy,” García said, indicating that Flor was a reporter who was always working on the street, close to people and their problems.
“Kike was a beautiful human being who practiced journalism. Politicians could attack him, but he didn’t lose his smile,” he pointed out, indicating that Flor never lost his skill to get to the bottom of the news, as when he investigated the case of a candidate who claimed to live in a Hialeah district but actually only had an office there.
Flor took a video of the place. It was a workshop with a small bathroom, obviously not the candidate’s official residence, García said.
Flor focused on the communities of Hialeah and Doral, and his coverage of the news was always ahead of other outlets, Carrillo recalled, noting that as a reporter “he handled his sources very well.”
Flor was also part of the team that covered one of the most tragic events in South Florida, a shootout that left seven people dead, including the individual who committed the massacre, in a Hialeah building in 2013.
In 2012, Flor received the Herald Hero Award, which is given as a special recognition by el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald to the journalist who has done an exceptional job.
A great colleague with extraordinary human qualities
Daniel Shoer, a journalist at el Nuevo Herald, highlighted Flor’s camaraderie and willingness to help, the impact of his work in the community and his “courageous victories.”
“Once he traveled to Colombia, where Cuban doctors were stranded after deserting their missions in Venezuela and Brazil. As a result of his news articles, which uncovered the conditions under which the doctors were retained, the U.S. government granted them visas and they were able to emigrate,” said Shoer, noting that Flor leaves behind “a painful void, but also a legacy of humanity, virtue and greatness.”
Flor was also an eye and an ear for Cubans who can’t visit the island, because, as a Peruvian, he was able to enter Cuba and write news reports that the Cuban government would not have allowed journalists born on the island to do. He highlights a visit to the El Cobre sanctuary, from where he brought back stories of Cubans’ devotion to their patron saint, the Virgen de la Caridad.
Flor also worked with investigative journalism organizations in Latin America, such as the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (Institute for Press and Society, IPYS) and the Conferencia Latinoamericana de Periodismo de Investigación (Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism, COLPIN).
“He was a very active contributor of IPYS. His involvement was key for the Jury in the selection and assessment of the works that compete for the Premio Latinoamericano de Periodismo de Investigación (Latin American Prize for Investigative Journalism) and COLPIN,” said journalist Adriana León, from IPYS.
“He was a careful, humble, discreet, observant and very intelligent journalist. In Peru, he was highly respected and loved by all journalists. In El Comercio he did very powerful investigations linked to political power in the 1990s and early 2000s,” added León.
Flor’s friends also highlight his sense of humor and his dedication to his family, especially his 17-year-old daughter Mariana.
“Kike told me that he also did his work with the community to set an example for his daughter,” said García.
“He was a human being with a big heart which did not fit in his chest, a very fair person,” said Doral Vice Mayor Digna Cabral. “He was the voice of many who had no voice. He sought to bring truth and justice no matter the consequences.”
Carrillo said: “Enrique was a committed, tireless journalist. He said that in Miami there was a lack of journalism in Spanish that would fight against corruption, and he planted a seed that we didn’t have a decade ago.”
Journalist Roberto Rodríguez Tejera, who had him as a guest several times on Actualidad 1040 AM radio station, agreed with Carrillo that Flor “made us better journalists, better human beings.”
Medina sums up the feeling of many colleagues, “He was a mentor, a teacher and a great friend to me and other journalists from South Florida. I know that I speak for many colleagues when I say that we will always be grateful for his teachings and for believing in us,” concluded Medina.
Enrique is survived by his daughter Mariana, his mother, Lucia, who lives in Peru, and four siblings, who live in Peru and Argentina.
Wake, Friday, March 18, from 6 p.m. until midnight, at VIOR Funeral Home, at 291 NW 37 Ave., Miami. Mass, Saturday, March 19, 8 p.m., Ermita de la Caridad, 3609 S Miami Ave.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 9:02 PM.
