International press group wants Peru to reopen probe of Florida journalist's 1989 murder
By RICK VECCHIO, Associated Press Writer
5/9/07 - LIMA, Peru - The Inter American Press Association launched a campaign Monday calling on Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo to reopen the murder investigation of the American journalist Todd Smith.
Smith, a 28-year-old reporter for The Tampa Tribune, was killed in 1989 while probing links between guerrillas and drug traffickers in the Peruvian jungle. In April 1993, a secret counterterrorism court handed Shining Path guerrilla Jose Manrique a 30-year sentence for taking part in the murder. But he was released later for reasons that remain unclear.
The trial transcript, obtained by The Associated Press, contained police intelligence reports that identified businessman Fernando Zevallos as a mastermind behind Smith's killing. But Zevallos - labeled a Peruvian cocaine kingpin last year by the Bush Administration - was never charged.
Zevallos, founder of the now defunct AeroContinente airline, denied any involvement in the murder, telling AP in February that he was out of the country when Smith was killed and his body dumped outside the jungle town of Uchiza, 250 miles north of Lima.
A sign found on Smith's body indicated the killers mistakenly took him for a U.S. narcotics agent. Smith had come to Peru on vacation in 1989 to investigate ties between Shining Path rebels and drug traffickers.
The Inter American Press Association took out an ad Monday in Peru's leading newspaper, El Comercio, calling on readers to sign an Internet E-mail petition addressed to Toledo, which made no direct reference to Zevallos.
"Although investigations and witnesses indicate those that planned the murder, officials at the time did not investigate them and the case was closed in 1996, leaving the case in impunity," the petition said.
"We respectfully ask you, Mr. President, to intervene to ensure that the appropriate steps are taken in order to determine who was responsible for the murder of Todd Smith, so that his death not be just another statistic in the list of unsolved murders in the Americas," the letter concluded.
Zevallos has faced charges in Peru and Chile of contract murder, cocaine trafficking, witness tampering and money laundering, but has never been convicted of a crime.
Rejecting the advice of U.S. Embassy officials, Smith went unaccompanied to Uchiza in the Hullaga Valley, a jungle-covered epicenter of guerrilla activity and drug trafficking. At the time of his murder, Peru's Interior Ministry said Smith had been captured by Maoist rebels and possibly sold to drug traffickers for $30,000, the bounty then offered for a U.S. drug enforcement agent.