Senator links trade agreement to murder probe

June 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Four top Peruvian officials today sought Senator Bill Nelson's support for free trade between their nation and the United States. But during their meeting, Florida's U.S. senator increased pressure on their government for a new probe into an American journalist's murder.

Nelson told three Peruvian ministers and a top official of the Andean nation's embassy here he couldn't commit to supporting free trade with Peru - until its judiciary responds to his request for a new probe into the murder there of a Tampa Tribune reporter in 1989.

"We can advance our trade relationship when Peru deals with broader issues, like justice," Nelson told the four officials during a meeting in Washington, D.C. Nelson, who favors increased trade, believes that open and fair judicial systems are necessary to protect U.S. business interests overseas.

Last month, Nelson asked Peru's ambassador to the U.S. to formally lodge a request for Peruvian law enforcement to reopen the investigation, and possibly help extradite a suspect to the U.S. That having been done, there's been no further word on the case.

The journalist, Todd Smith, who was 28, was tortured and killed while on a working vacation to investigate links between drug traffickers and Shining Path guerrillas. In April 1993, a secret court sentenced one of the guerrillas to 30 years, but he later he was released. Legal records, obtained recently by The Associated Press, contained information linking another man to the killing - a well-known Peruvian businessman identified by the Bush administration last year as a cocaine kingpin.

This new evidence prompted Nelson's initial request for another investigation through Peruvian Ambassador Eduardo Ferrero Costa. On Tuesday, Nelson met with Peru's Minister of Production David Lemor Bezdin, Minister of Agriculture Manuel Manrique Ugarte, Vice Minister of Commerce Pablo de la Flor Belaunde and Italo Acha, the counselor of trade affairs at the Peruvian embassy.

They were seeking Nelson's support for a free-trade agreement between the United States and Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Negotiations on the Andean free-trade pact originally started in May 2004, but negotiators have reached only a few agreements so far. The next round is set for Miami in July.

In response to Nelson linking trade with the Smith case on Tuesday, Lemor Bezdin said he would convey the senator's concerns to the appropriate Peruvian authorities, because the trade representatives "also would like to see justice served in the case and the truth be known."

Peru, Colombia and Ecuador are eager to sign a deal before their duty-free access to the United States, under a trade preference agreement, runs out at the end of 2006.

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