Colombian Youth Convicted in Death of Latino Journalist
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NEW YORK — A Colombian teen-ager was convicted Wednesday in the contract killing of a crusading anti-drug journalist who was gunned down on what authorities said were orders from a drug lord.
Wilson Alejandro Mejia-Velez, 19, was convicted of violating federal interstate commerce laws in the murder-for-hire plot that involved telephone calls between Colombia and the United States.
Manuel de Dios Unanue, 48, the former editor in chief of El Diario-La Prensa, a New York-based Spanish-language daily, was sitting at a bar on March 11, 1992, when a hooded gunman walked up and killed him.
Prosecutors said Mejia-Velez carried out the hit on orders of Colombia’s Cali drug cartel to silence de Dios’ attacks on drug lords in two magazines he published.
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