Virginia "Vicky" Peláez Ocampo (born 1956 in

Cuzco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire unti ...

, Peru) is a

Peruvian Peruvians (''/peruanas'') are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 ...

journalist and columnist, currently for ''

The Moscow News ''The Moscow News'', which began publication in 1930, was Russia's oldest English-language newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the Russian language '' Moskovskiye Novosti.'' History Soviet Union In 1930 ''The M ...

'' newspaper. She is known for pleading guilty on 8 July 2010 for working in the United States as an unregistered foreign agent for Russia. She is also known for her leftist writings in ''

El Diario La Prensa ''El Diario Nueva York'' is the largest and the oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States. Published by ImpreMedia, the paper covers local, national and international news with an emphasis on Latin America, as well as human-i ...

'', a New York City Spanish language newspaper. Prior to working in the United States, Peláez was one of the first female television reporters in Peru where she reported for Frecuencia Latina.

Career

Peláez was one of the few women journalists in Peru in the 1980s and established a reputation as a "colorful" reporter for Frecuencia Latina (Channel 2) in Lima. The Peruvian magazine ''Teleguía'' called her "the most aggressive journalist on TV." The Peruvian CNN journalist Claudia Rebaza described Peláez in this period as a controversial figure, known for interjecting herself into stories and for a

sensationalist In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotiona ...

style. In 1984, Peláez and her cameraman Percy Raborg were kidnapped by the Peruvian rebel group

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (, abbreviated MRTA) was a Peruvian Marxist-Leninist guerrilla army which started in the early 1980s. Their self-declared goal was to demonstrate to leftist groups in Peru that sought change through the ...

(MRTA). MRTA demanded Frecuencia Latina air a propaganda video in exchange for the release of Peláez and Raborg. The station agreed to air the video and Peláez and Raborg were released hours after airing. Raborg has since stated that Peláez was a willing participant in the kidnapping. Peláez moved to the United States shortly after the MRTA incident. She worked for the New York-based ''El Diario La Prensa'' for more than two decades. Her

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

writingsJillian Scharr & Juan DeJesus
Vicky Pelaez: Journalist, Radical, Russian Spy?: Judge Releases Pelaez on Bail

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey� ...

(2 July 2010). were critical of United States foreign policy and strongly supportive of Latin American leaders

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

and

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. At the time of her arrest, Peláez was a resident of

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

Illegals Program

In June 2010, Peláez, along with her husband Mikhail Anatolyevich Vasenkov (Михаил Анатольевич Васенков, alias Juan Lazaro) and nine others, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

. The operations of this group was dubbed by American authorities as the "

Illegals Program The Illegals Program (so named by the United States Department of Justice) was a network of Russian sleeper agents under unofficial cover. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents on ...

" directed by Russia. Waldo Mariscal, the eldest son of Peláez, claimed the U.S. government was persecuting his parents for their political views. On 8 July 2010, Peláez pleaded guilty to working in the United States as an unregistered foreign agent for Russia, and agreed to be

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its Sovereignty, sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or ...

and never return, in exchange for the U.S. dropping the more serious charge of

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

and waiving any jail time. On 10 July, Peláez and Vasenkov were two of ten Russian agents who were exchanged for four prisoners held by Russia in an elaborate U.S.-Russian deal. They were returned to their handlers in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

along with the other traded Russian spies. Peláez and Vasenkov expressed a desire to leave Russia and go to Peru. ''

La República ''La República'' () is a Peruvian newspaper based in Lima, Peru. It is one of the two main national daily newspapers sold all over the country since it was founded on November 16, 1981. History Founding and early history The paper was fou ...

'' reported that the couple permanently moved to Peru in December 2013.

Aftermath

Since August 2011, Peláez has been a contributor to ''The Moscow News''.Vicky Pelaez
The list of her articles published in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelaez, Vicky 1956 births 1984 crimes in Peru 2010 in Russia Living people Kidnapped Peruvian people People deported from the United States Peruvian women journalists Peruvian women columnists Russian spies Kidnappings in Peru