Caretas

Caretas (Masks) is a weekly newsmagazine published in Lima, Peru, renowned for its investigative journalism.

History

Caretas was founded in October 1950 by Doris Gibson and Francisco Igartua.

In the mid-1950s, Gibson's son, Enrique Zileri, returned from Europe (from where he had been making contributions for the magazine) to join Caretas. Not long after, Igartua departed from the magazine and Zileri joined Gibson as co-director.

After several years of monthly publication, Caretas began to be published semi-monthly, and, since 1979, weekly. A new edition currently appears every Thursday.

Caretas focuses on Peruvian-related topics, ranging from historic coups (it was founded during Odría's regime), corruption scandals, presidential elections, crimes of passion, sports, to wars and terrorism. Since the mid-1980s, Caretas has imitated Time Magazine by naming a Man of the Year in the year-end issue of the magazine, called Premio a la Resistencia (Prize to the Resistance).

The publication's first all-color cover featured Peruvian model Gladys Zender, who became Latin America's first beauty pageant contestant to win the Miss Universe title in 1957.