Liberal Journalist Among Spies Sent Back to Russia
Vicky Pelaez is one of the ten Russian spies sent back to Russia. Unlike the other spies, she was a liberal journalist and left wing activist who used her position of influence to speak out against Arizona's new illegal immigration law.
But for Peruvian-born Pelaez, the one-way ticket to Russia is a new adventure, only the latest chapter in the very full and complicated life of an admitted spy, radical journalist, wife and mother.
Even within a ring of secret Russian agents, her story stands out. Pelaez, 55, was the only member of the group who was not a Russian citizen, had never been to the country before today and operated under her real identity. She and her husband were living as an ordinary, if left-leaning, couple in Yonkers, just north of New York City.
"Vicky's case is more complicated," federal court Judge Ronald Ellis told NBC earlier this week. "She does not appear to be a trained agent. She has a real identity and she is a U.S. citizen." She was also the spy who lived her life -- most of it, anyway -- in the public eye, working as a well-known Spanish-language newspaper columnist in New York after earning a reputation as a hard-nosed reporter in Peru.
But a look at her life story offers no definitive answers about why the veteran journalist chose to become an agent of the Russian government. In some ways, it only deepens the mystery.
Pelaez's most obvious tie to Russia is her husband, 65-year-old Mikhail Vasenkov, a Russian citizen who lived in the United States under the false identity "Juan Lazaro."
The couple may have plenty of time to catch up in Russia. Or not. The Russian government has offered Pelaez a monthly stipend of $2,000 for life, but Rodriguez told NPR that Pelaez is likely to head to Peru, where her family has a ranch and the secret agent's story began.
In 1984, Pelaez was already a famous TV reporter in Peru when she was kidnapped by Tupac Amaru, then one of the country's main communist guerrilla groups. It wasn't long after she was freed that she began publicly making radical statements of her own, as a columnist in the pages of El Diario, the most prestigious Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S.
In her columns, Pelaez was sharply critical of U.S. foreign policy and often of capitalism in general. Unfortunately, such anti-American positions are common among liberal reporters and their articles.
"The history of development and capitalism demonstrates that xenophobia and racism have always been put to use by unscrupulous politicians in the recurring cycles of economic crisis, to quell the discontent and rage of the people," she wrote in an April column for the newspaper about Arizona's controversial new illegal immigration law.
It makes one wonder, how many other anti-American journalists are also on the Russian payroll? Certainly they are not all helping our enemies for free.
See Chick's THE POOR REVOLUTIONIST.
But for Peruvian-born Pelaez, the one-way ticket to Russia is a new adventure, only the latest chapter in the very full and complicated life of an admitted spy, radical journalist, wife and mother.
Even within a ring of secret Russian agents, her story stands out. Pelaez, 55, was the only member of the group who was not a Russian citizen, had never been to the country before today and operated under her real identity. She and her husband were living as an ordinary, if left-leaning, couple in Yonkers, just north of New York City.
"Vicky's case is more complicated," federal court Judge Ronald Ellis told NBC earlier this week. "She does not appear to be a trained agent. She has a real identity and she is a U.S. citizen." She was also the spy who lived her life -- most of it, anyway -- in the public eye, working as a well-known Spanish-language newspaper columnist in New York after earning a reputation as a hard-nosed reporter in Peru.
But a look at her life story offers no definitive answers about why the veteran journalist chose to become an agent of the Russian government. In some ways, it only deepens the mystery.
Pelaez's most obvious tie to Russia is her husband, 65-year-old Mikhail Vasenkov, a Russian citizen who lived in the United States under the false identity "Juan Lazaro."
The couple may have plenty of time to catch up in Russia. Or not. The Russian government has offered Pelaez a monthly stipend of $2,000 for life, but Rodriguez told NPR that Pelaez is likely to head to Peru, where her family has a ranch and the secret agent's story began.
In 1984, Pelaez was already a famous TV reporter in Peru when she was kidnapped by Tupac Amaru, then one of the country's main communist guerrilla groups. It wasn't long after she was freed that she began publicly making radical statements of her own, as a columnist in the pages of El Diario, the most prestigious Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S.
In her columns, Pelaez was sharply critical of U.S. foreign policy and often of capitalism in general. Unfortunately, such anti-American positions are common among liberal reporters and their articles.
"The history of development and capitalism demonstrates that xenophobia and racism have always been put to use by unscrupulous politicians in the recurring cycles of economic crisis, to quell the discontent and rage of the people," she wrote in an April column for the newspaper about Arizona's controversial new illegal immigration law.
It makes one wonder, how many other anti-American journalists are also on the Russian payroll? Certainly they are not all helping our enemies for free.
See Chick's THE POOR REVOLUTIONIST.
posted by chickcomics | 8:02 AM
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