Peru's interior minister Daniel Urresti accused of journalist's 1988 murder

[muriel_volestrangler]

Peru's new interior minister, Daniel Urresti, has been forced to admit that he is being investigated for the murder of a journalist in 1988 when he was an intelligence officer fighting the Maoist guerrillas of the Shining Path.

Urresti, 57, declared his innocence on Wednesday night, saying his hands were not "stained with blood", hours after a news website, IDL Radio, revealed that the case had been opened against him in June last year.

The alleged victim was Hugo Bustios, of Caretas magazine, who was ambushed by soldiers while investigating the alleged extrajudicial killings of civilians in Ayacucho, the region at the centre of the violence.

Two soldiers were convicted of killing Bustios six years ago. One of them, Amador Vidal, claimed Urresti, then a captain in charge of army intelligence at the Castropampa military base, was among the killers. In a formal statement, Vidal alleges Urresti, known by his nom-de-guerre, Arturo, directed the ambush in which Bustios was killed.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/03/peru-interior-minister-daniel-urresti-murder-charge

[Judi Lynn]

1. This looks very bad for the current President, Ollanta Humala, who ran as a leftist.

People were aware, however, that during his military career, he was engaged in the same war against the poor. Sad.