Peru probes shooting death of young investigative reporter

LIMA - Police in Peru are probing the death of a young journalist who had reported on corruption and hired killers, authorities said Tuesday.

Fernando Raymondi Uribe, 22, was killed Sunday by two gunmen while working in a shop his family owned.

Police said it appeared to be an attempted robbery gone awry. But the Miami-based Inter-American Press Association said details released publicly so far are "confusing" and it called for a prompt and thorough investigation.

Nothing was stolen from the shop, the association said.

Raymondi Uribe was an investigative reporter for the magazine Caretas.

He had recently published articles on hired killers in Canete, the town where his family's store is located, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Lima.

Other stories he did centred on a mayor jailed for corruption and a lawmaker with alleged links to a Mexican drug kingpin.

IAPA president Gustavo Mohme, who is also editor of the Lima newspaper La Republica, said Tuesday "the press should dig into the investigations that Raymondi was carrying out at Caretas, as a way of shedding additional light on something that some wanted to keep silent."