Peruvian Ex-Minister Complicit in Reporter’s Murder

A Peruvian ex-interior minister was complicit in the 1988 killing of Hugo Bustíos, a journalist who investigated human rights abuses, a court has found.

The former minister, Daniel Urresti, has been ‘sentenced’ to 12 years in jail.

“The court ruled that Urresti, who at the time was a military intelligence officer in the army, took part in the ambush and murder of Mr Bustíos.”

Lawyers for the politician said “they would appeal against the verdict.”

Hugo Bustíos, a reporter for the weekly magazine Caretas, was killed at the height of the conflict between Peruvian security forces and rebels of the Maoist Shining Path group.

The journalist reported on human rights abuses committed both by the rebels and the army in the Andean region of Ayacucho, one of the hardest hit by the armed conflict, which left 69,000 people dead or disappeared.

On the day of his killing, he was heading to investigate the killing of a villager and her son, reportedly by the Shining Path.

Ambushed

He and a fellow journalist, Eduardo Rojas, were ambushed and shot at while they were making their way to the village by motorcycle.

Mr Bustíos fell to the ground, injured, while Mr Rojas, who had also been hit, managed to escape.

Witnesses said “men in plain clothes then placed explosives on Mr Bustíos and detonated them, killing him instantly.”

The attack was initially blamed on the Shining Path, but eyewitnesses said it had been carried out by the army.

After a drawn-out legal battle, the commander of the local army base, Victor La Vera Hernández, was found guilty in 2007 of ordering the attack on the journalist.

In a surprise move, when he was released from prison in 2011, La Vera implicated Daniel Urresti in the murder.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the court said “that a total of six members of the military had been involved in the journalist’s killing and that Daniel Urresti was one of them.”

The 66-year-old is an influential figure in Peru.

After he retired from the army, he got involved in politics, serving as minister for the interior from 2014 to 2015.

While he dropped out of two presidential races before the final stages, he last year came within less than a percentage point of being elected mayor of Lima.

But his political career has been overshadowed by allegations he took part in the brutal killing of Mr Bustíos.

In 2018, he was cleared of any involvement in the journalist’s murder, but Peru’s Supreme Court overturned the ruling and ordered a new trial, which on Wednesday led to his conviction for murder.

The judges also rule that Mr Bustíos’s murder had been “premeditated.”

Mr Bustíos’s daughter, Sharelí, welcomed the ruling.

“Thirty-four years have passed since my father was murdered, but finally justice has been done – we finally got the justice that had so far been denied to us,” she told Peruvian radio.

BBC/Shakirat Sadiq