Antonio de la Torre Echeandía

By Maria Salazar

In Peru, a surprising reversal by the Supreme Court leaves a slain reporters family seeking justice.

New York, March 19, 2007—Two hooded gunmen shot and killed a popular Peruvian radio commentator in front of his wife and children on Saturday night, according to news reports.

Eyewitnesses quoted by the Lima daily La República said the attackers opened fire on Miguel Pérez Julca as the journalist and his family were nearing the front door of their home in Jaén, in northwestern Peru, before speeding away on a motorcycle. Pérez’s wife, Nelly Guevara, was wounded in the attack.

Two hooded gunmen shot and killed the popular Peruvian radio commentator in front of his wife and children, according to news reports. Eyewitnesses quoted by the Lima daily La República said the attackers opened fire as the journalist and his family were nearing the front door of their home in northwestern Peru, then sped away on a motorcycle. Pérez's wife, Nelly Guevara, was wounded in the attack.

Pérez was host of the radio program "El Informativo del Pueblo" ("Bulletin of the People") on the Jaén-based station Radio Éxitos. Pérez, 38, had covered local crime and allegations of government corruption.

Guevara told local reporters that her husband had received death threats on his cell phone in the weeks prior to his death. She said that an unknown vehicle had followed Pérez on the afternoon of March 16.

In the days following the murder, Guevara said she received telephone calls at home from unidentified people who threatened to kill her and her three children, according to Peruvian news reports. Correspondents Juan Vásquez of América Televisión and Walter Altamirano of Radio Acajú told local reporters that they had also been threatened after covering news of the murder.

Four people were detained in connection with Pérez's murder, although three were released without charge, according to the press freedom group Instituto Prensa y Sociedad. One suspect, José Hurtado Vásquez, remained in custody. Jaén police accused Hurtado of hiring two local gunmen to kill the journalist. Investigators say Hurtado was angered by on-air criticism of his girlfriend, the director of a local nonprofit organization, according to Peruvian press reports. Hurtado denied the accusation, the Lima-based daily El Comercio reported.

Local colleagues and Lima-based journalists who spoke to CPJ said they were skeptical of the police investigation. According to La República, Pérez promised during his last show that he would reveal the names of  "Jaén police officers who are in cahoots with drug traffickers and protect gangs of criminals." A few hours before the murder, several witnesses saw Pérez and Police Commander Jorge Velezmoro Ruiz at a local restaurant, La República reported. Velezmoro denied having seen Pérez that day, the newspaper said.

On April 16, 2008, a court in Jaén convicted Hurtado of masterminding the slaying and sentenced him to 27 years in prison, and Nazario Coronel Ramírez, also known as "Chamaya," to 19 years in prison. The court also ordered the two men to pay the journalist's family 35,000 Peruvian sols (US$13,000) as compensation, El Comercio said.

The slaying was the first involving a Peruvian journalist since the 2004 murders of two radio commentators, Alberto Rivera in Pucallpa and Antonio de la Torre Echeandía in Yungay.

A Supreme Court decision overturning a local mayor’s conviction in the murder of a radio journalist alarmed the news media and punctuated a year in which provincial reporters faced threats and attacks from local officials and their supporters.

Citing a lack of evidence, the high court ordered the release of Yungay Mayor Amaro León León and two other defendants convicted in the February 2004 slaying of Antonio de la Torre Echeandía, a radio reporter who had criticized the local government. León, who immediately retook office, threatened legal action against de la Torre Echeandía’s wife, Dina Ramírez, when she sought more information on the Supreme Court’s decision and a new investigation into her husband’s killing. After León’s supporters threatened her and protested outside her home, Ramírez told CPJ, she moved her family to Lima.

New York, July 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the Peruvian Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the murder convictions of three men, one a local mayor, in the 2004 slaying of journalist Antonio de la Torre Echeandía. The court, in a July 21 decision, freed the three defendants without immediate explanation. CPJ called on the court to immediately make public the basis for its ruling.

New York, March 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by threats against Peruvian radio journalist Rory Huaney Rodríguez in the city of Yungay, in the northern Áncash province. Huaney said the threats stem from his coverage of the trial of a former local mayor charged in the 2004 murder of journalist Antonio de la Torre Echeandía.

In an interview with CPJ, Huaney said the situation escalated Saturday evening. He alleged that the son of former Yungay mayor Amaro León beat and kicked him. The ex-mayor’s son, Jean Carlo León Martínez, warned Huaney to stop talking about his father or he would be killed, the reporter told CPJ. The elder León was convicted in December 2005 of killing radio reporter De la Torre Echeandía.

PERU

Attacks and threats against the press, particularly in Peru's interior,
continued a disturbing upward trend that began in 2004. After lessening in frequency and severity after President Alberto Fujimori fled office in 2000, assaults on journalists were reported regularly in 2005. The Lima-based press freedom organization Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, considered the authoritative local source, documented 19 attacks in the first nine months of 2005 alone. CPJ's analysis found that most of these were carried out by peasant and worker groups, protesters, security guards, businessmen, and relatives of government officials whose actions were scrutinized by the press. The threat was fundamentally different from the government-sponsored attacks that marked the Fujimori era.

New York, December 16, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the conviction by a Peruvian court of three men in the murder of radio journalist Antonio de la Torre Echeandía in Yungay, northern Áncash Region.

On December 15, the Áncash Superior Court of Justice found former Yungay Mayor Amaro León guilty of masterminding the February 2004 stabbing death and sentenced him to 17 years in prison, according to the Lima-based press freedom organization Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) and local news reports. De la Torre Echeandía, 43, was a harsh critic of León, whom he accused of nepotism and corruption.

Peru

Attacks and threats against journalists increased considerably in 2004, reversing a decline that had followed Alejandro Toledo's accession to the presidency in 2001. And while Peruvian journalists generally work freely, several have been prosecuted on criminal defamation charges.

The embattled Toledo, a highly unpopular leader whose term ends in July 2006, has faced several political crises, and his Cabinet has been reshuffled several times. Several of his ministers have resigned over allegations of influence peddling, nepotism, and malfeasance. Alleged wrongdoing and ethical violations by Toledo's relatives and government officials have supplied the media with an endless stream of scandals.

Dear Mrs. Calderón: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the murder of Peruvian journalist Antonio de la Torre Echeandía, who was killed after leaving a party on February 14, 2004, in the city of Yungay, in northern Ancash Department....