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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan.25, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Lori Berenson, a 26-year-old political activist from New York, was sentenced to life in prison by a secret military court in Peru on Jan. 11. She was one of 23 people convicted on charges of "lawless treason" for supporting the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).
The MRTA has waged a 12-year struggle against U.S. domination of the Andean nation and its 22 million people.
Berenson and the Peruvian activists were arrested Nov. 30 after an 11-hour siege of her Lima home by DINCOTE, an "anti-terrorist" police force. Four people died in the police assault.
The MRTA supporters were charged with planning an armed takeover of the national congress.
Like thousands of Peruvian leftists, workers and peasants who have been arrested since 1992, Berenson was denied the right to a public trial in a civil court. She and her compatriots were tried by hooded military judges. Their lawyer had no opportunity to present a defense or cross- examine witnesses.
It took the arrest of a white North American to make the U.S. media pay attention.
Berenson's case shines a bright light on the fascist-style repression employed by President Alberto Fujimori's government in its efforts to crush a powerful popular movement. His regime has targeted the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), also called the Shining Path, along with the MRTA.
The PCP led a revolutionary movement backed by masses of peasants and workers. It has suffered serious setbacks since the 1992 capture of its leader, Abimael Guzman.
Behind the military courts and Fujimori stands U.S. imperialism--which supplies arms, military advisers and financial support to the regime. Washington considers this a critical investment in continuing the exploitation of Latin America.
It's critical that all those who fight for social justice in this country demand freedom for Lori Berenson--and for the 3,000 other liberation fighters behind Peru's prison walls.
Prosecutors sought a 30-year sentence against Berenson. But, as if to highlight the political character of the trial, the court instead handed down a life sentence.
"What occurred today is a travesty of justice," said Grimaldo Achahui, Berenson's government-appointed lawyer. "There was not one piece of concrete evidence presented to show that Lori had committed treason. It was all conjecture."
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has assisted Berenson's family since her arrest. Clark traveled to Peru in December in Berenson's defense, but he was not permitted to attend the trial.
After her sentencing he said: "Peru continues its massive abuses of human rights and complete denial of due process of law. Rather than present evidence, if it has any, to a civilian constitutional court in a public trial, the Peruvian government has used masked military officers in a secret proceeding to silence the truth and condemn the innocent."
Berenson's lawyers plan to appeal. Meanwhile, she will be transferred to Yanamayo, a maximum-security prison in an isolated area of Andes.
Rebels held there spend all but one-half hour a day in six-and-a-half-by-10-foot cells. The cells have no light.
Lori Berenson became active in the Central American solidarity movement in 1989. She was an organizer for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. She lived in El Salvador during the early 1990s and worked with the popular movement there.
A year ago, Berenson moved to Peru, planning to write about the conditions of poor women.
Before the verdict, Berenson, shackled and handcuffed, was dragged to a DINCOTE news conference. Shouting to be heard above her captors, she bravely expressed her solidarity with the popular struggle.
"I am to be condemned for my concern about the conditions of hunger and misery which exist in this country," Berenson said. "Nobody can deny that in Peru there is much injustice. There is institutionalized violence that has killed the people's best sons and daughters and has condemned children to die of hunger.
"If it is a crime to worry about the subhuman conditions in which the majority of the population lives, then I will accept my punishment.
"This is not to be a criminal terrorist," she said. "The MRTA are not criminal terrorists. It is a revolutionary movement."
"Her statement was one of solidarity with those who want to change things," Ramsey Clark noted. "She has told us from the beginning that she doesn't want to separate herself from the rest of the group."
The Berenson case shows that the struggle continues in Peru. Both the PCP and MRTA remain active. And the conditions of poverty and oppression that gave birth to the militant popular struggle have only deepened.
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