Manuel de Dios Unanue

Manuel de Dios Unanue (4 January 1943 – 11 March 1992) was a Cuban-born U.S. journalist, radio show host,[2] anti-drug crusading editor of magazines Cambio XXI and Crimen,[3] and editor-in-chief of El Diario La Prensa, New York City's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper.

[3][5] In November 1978, de Dios was part of a group of expatriates who participated in a controversial "dialogue" with Fidel Castro and other Cuban officials and became a member of its Committee of 75.

[2] After leaving El Diario-La Prensa, de Dios hosted a radio show called "What Others Try To Silence," and he publicized alleged drug traffickers' names on the air.

[5] On 11 March 1992, de Dios was sitting at the bar at the Meson Asturias Restaurant, in Queens, New York, when he was approached from behind and shot twice in the head by Wilson Alejandro Mejia-Velez.

[9][13] Londoño, however, was at large in Colombia and, due to extradition issues, could not be brought to the U.S. to stand trial for de Dios' murder even if found, according to deputy U.S. attorney Eric Friedberg.

[2] Londoño was killed by Colombian police 5 March 1996, shortly after U.S. authorities made public its decision to withhold partial funding to Colombia's government due to that country's failure to prosecute more aggressively in its war on drug traffickers.

[5] Londoño allegedly ordered the murder of de Dios because of the journalist's upcoming book, Partyloving Cali, which threatened to further expose the drug traffickers' activities, federal prosecutors asserted.

[5] "The same tactics repeatedly used by Colombian cocaine traffickers in South America to silence their critics were used here and that is something we will not tolerate," proclaimed Queens District Attorney Richard A.

[17] In September 1998, the Manuel de Dios Unanue Journalism School, formerly M.S.142, opened at 610 Henry Street in Carroll Gardens, welcoming 120 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.