Few people could recognized her face on the news (though older now), most people hadn’t heard of her in such a long time; for others, her name was either unknown or new. Vicky Pelaez, a Peruvian journalist who had been working for El Diario newspaper in New York for almost twenty years, had just been arrested by the F.B.I. on Sunday June 27th along with her husband Juan Lazaro. Both were accused of being Russian spies.Her family, who live in Cuzco (Peru), was shocked by the recent news that made the front pages in most newspapers around the country. They came out to say that they believed in Vicky’s integrity and good moral behavior; they also claimed that Pelaez was being harassed because of her articles at El Diario (article in Spanish) where her supportive ideas towards socialist groups and opposing ideas to the Obama administration were more than clear. Pelaez’s story begins more than twenty years ago in Lima-Peru. In mid 1980s, Pelaez worked as a journalist in the Channel 2 (Frecuencia Latina). Described by a USA Today article as a gutsy TV reporter, Pelaez used to cover stories in dangerous parts of Lima and also in penitentiaries where high-rank criminals and terrorists were being jailed; these types of confrontations made her be known as a tough journalist but also as a pro-communist person.
Vicky Pelaez (a photo taken in 1980s) and her husband Juan Lazaro
Different approaches were taken in Peru and the U.S. While media worldwide exposed the story as made out of a James Bond’s script, they all reported the story of ten regular and common residents in a regular city working as undercover spies serving the Russians. While the U.S. spotted Anna Chapman’s beauty, as questioned by Jay Leno in a conversation with Vice President Joe Biden: do we have any spies that hot? (referring to Anna Chapman), in Peru, media turned to Pelaez’s past events to try to find an answer to her soon-to-confirm spy confession (article in Spanish).
Newspapers in the U.S.
In Peru, Media took a clear stand in emphasizing Pelaez’s past when she used to work for the Channel 2 (Frecuencia Latina) during mid 1980’s. Print media also showed her off in the front cover using old pictures in multiple editions. This particular emphasis on her past, brought back unclear events when Pelaez had been thought to be a terrorist. On December 3rd 1984, she was kidnapped by the MRTA (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru) an insurgent group (video in Spanish). While being kidnapped during 14 hours, Pelaez interviewed her captors whom later contacted Channel 2 to negotiate Pelaez’s freedom only if the Channel aired the interview with their petitions to liberate some comrades from a local jail. The uncertainty behind this issue for some remained in whether Pelaez was indeed kidnapped or whether it was all planned and strategically carried out to air insurgents’ petitions on TV. As of today, there are those who claim both sides of the story as true.
In other countries, Pelaez’s past was not taken into account at all. Instead, as questioned by the USA Today, the issue was whether she would be a real spy or simply a betrayed wife. This perspective is quite similar to the one offered by a BBC article where charges against the Peruvian journalist are considered hyperbole. The fact that she never changed her name and that she had a known job were crucial for claiming her unawareness of the spy activity even to the extent of not learning that the Russian government had paid for her house located in Yonkers as declared by her husband Juan Lazaro.
It was indeed, then, the effect of the media that played a key role in people’s understanding (and approach) to this issue. Peruvian newspapers were covering the story particularly because it involved a Peruvian journalist, yet the focus remained in emphasizing past events because that’s what newspapers as well as TV news started to pull out. A different perspective was taken at the U.S. where the beauty of Chapman overwhelmed the public, overshadowing real facts behind the stage. As pointed out by Hanson (p. 59), the agenda-setting theory can be of help to understand how media showed the public specifics about this case but also how theses ‘specifics’ varied from one country to the other: in the U.S. Chapman as a hot spy; and in Peru, Pelaez as a radical journalist with a red-tendency (red is a color related to terrorist groups). Though I do not attempt to generalize in this latter point because I have not analyzed all pieces of media, the sources shown here do demonstrate this.
Since I am Peruvian, I was particularly interested in this issue and was also surprised by what was being highlighted at both the U.S. and Peru. The New York Times, a well-respected newspaper in the U.S. and worldwide, presented a specific perspective of the case whereas El Comerio and La Republica, two well-respected and historical newspapers in Peru, presented the same case emphasizing one angle of the story—Pelaez’s past. Since I usually visit those sites to keep myself up to date with news, they became my main sources for this post.
Vice President Joe Biden in an interview with Jay Leno
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