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A court sentenced this Thursday, April 13, the former Interior Minister and retired general of the Peruvian Army, Daniel Urresti, to 12 years in prison after finding him guilty of the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos. The magistrate accused the soldier-turned-politician of “co-authoring” the crime, which took place nearly 35 years ago, when Urresti was serving as an officer of the military institution. The defense will file an appeal.
The Peruvian Justice pronounces itself more than three decades after the murder of the journalist Hugo Bustíos.
A court sentenced this April 13, to 12 years in prison, former Interior Minister Daniel Urresti, whom he pointed out as the “co-author” of the crime, which occurred on November 24, 1988.
According to the reading of the opinion, Urresti, who was working as an Army officer at the time, would have participated along with other of his then military colleagues in an ambush in which they fired and threw dynamite at the communicator, on a rural road in the province of Huanta , in the south of the country.
“Condemning Daniel Urresti as co-perpetrator of the crime against the body and health in the form of murder with the aggravated circumstance of treachery,” said the court ruling, issued by the Third Superior National Transitory Settlement Criminal Chamber, made up of judges Juan Carlos Santillán, Francisco Mendoza Ayma and Máximo Maguiña Castro.
The conviction of Daniel Urresti is an important step in the fight against impunity in Peru. This is a reminder that no one is above the law. pic.twitter.com/3EyrFu6ftv
— Lucho Durán (@LuchoDuranRojo) April 13, 2023
The events took place when Bustíos was going to cover, together with another reporter identified as Eduardo Rojas., the murder of two peasants. By then, the country was going through a bloody conflict between the Armed Forces and the illegal armed group, Sendero Luminoso.
Rojas survived, but suffered serious injuries.
Although the Prosecutor’s Office initially requested 25 years in prison against him, the sentence was lowered in the midst of the prolongation of the process.
After 35 years, “I can tell my parents that they can finally rest in peace,” said Sharmelí Bustíos, daughter of the murdered journalist.
Sharmelí’s mother and wife of the communicator, Margarita Patiño, who promoted the search for justice for her husband, died in a traffic accident in 2016.
“A crime against humanity”
The court emphasized the aggravating circumstance that Urresti worked as an officer of the Armed Forces.
Therefore, it indicated that it was a crime against humanity and a case “of great complexity”, since it involved the murder “with great cruelty”.
In justifying its sentence, the court also stressed that it was based “on proven and irremovable facts, some of which are unquestionable,” such as the fact that Bustíos was killed with firearms by military personnel who were dressed in civilian clothes.
The sentence against Urresti, who was also a presidential candidate and is usually invited by the local media to comment on Peruvian politics, comes after a second trial.
A first process acquitted him, but in 2019 the Supreme Court annulled the acquittal, indicating that it was plagued with errors, which allowed the case to be reopened and a new trial proceeded.
For this murder too Officers Víctor La Vera, head of the Castropampa military base located in Huanta and close to the area where the journalist was killed, and officer Amador Vidal, who from the prison accused Urresti before the authorities of being part of the group of assassins.
With EFE and AP
