Berenson case and capitalist democracy
No justice in Peru's courts
By Andy
McInerney
Anyone who had illusions that the fall of Peruvian
dictator Alberto Fujimori in November 2000 would usher in a
new era of democracy in Peru got a rude wake-up call on June
20. Political prisoner Lori Berenson was handed a 20-year
sentence for "terrorism in respect to collaboration against
the state."
Berenson is a progressive U.S. activist and journalist.
She was arrested in 1995 with several Peruvians on charges of
being a "leader" of the Tupac Amaru Liberation Movement
(MRTA) and planning the bombing of Peru's Congress. She has
always denied the charges and maintained her innocence.
"I am innocent of the prosecutor's charges of being a
member and a collaborator with the MRTA," Berenson said in
her closing statement. "In fact, by definition one cannot be
both a member and a collaborator. I am neither and there is
no evidence to the contrary."
At the time of her arrest, dictator Alberto Fujimori and
his right-hand man, secret police boss Vladimiro Montesinos,
were prosecuting a bloody war against the MRTA and the
Communist Party of Peru. Both groups were conducting armed
insurgencies against the Peruvian state.
All pretense of democracy had been abandoned after the
U.S.-backed 1992 "self-coup," when Fujimori and the military
heads dissolved Congress and cut off all freedom of
association and press. Berenson was tried in the system of
so-called "faceless justice,"where judges were masked and
defense lawyers were not allowed to view evidence.
Of course, Berenson is just one of thousands of political
prisoners who languish in Peru's brutal prisons. Human rights
groups estimate that there are between 4,000 and 5,000
political prisoners, the vast majority accused of belonging
to or supporting the PCP or the MRTA.
Fujimori was swept from power in 2000 after a wave of mass
protests against his anti-democratic regime. In June, former
World Bank official and Wall Street darling Alejandro Toledo
took over the presidency.
Despite the new regime--whose "democratic" credentials are
touted by the likes of war criminal and former U.S. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright--the political prisoners are
still in jail. Berenson was convicted again, relying on the
same flimsy evidence from informers bent on personal gain as
in her 1995 conviction.
The leaders of both the PCP and the MRTA have been held
incommunicado in isolated prisons for years. An April 2001
delegation of the International Emergency Committee to Defend
the Life of Dr. Abimael Gúzman was denied the
opportunity to meet with the PCP leader.
MRTA leader Victor Polay is also being held in
isolation.
Despite the brutal repression, Peru's political prisoners
have staged militant struggles against the ruling class. For
example, beginning on March 13, MRTA prisoners began a
weeklong occupation of the infamous Yanamayo prison,
demanding that it be closed and they be transferred.
Yanamayo was also the site of a February 2000 uprising led
by PCP prisoners demanding prisoner-of-war status and a
public appearance by Abimael Gúzman, better known as
"Chairman Gonzalo."
Desperate social conditions
Peru's ruling class and its U.S. masters may no longer
feel the need for Fujimori's iron handed tactics, preferring
a more "democratic" veneer for their exploitation. But
despite the change in regime, Peru's workers and peasants
live in desperate social conditions.
Half of Peru's 26 million people live in poverty.
Full-time employment is a luxury. Anti-Indigenous racism runs
rampant in the countryside.
On top of this unstable social situation, the
International Monetary Fund is demanding an economic policy
of austerity and privatizations. This neoliberal economic
program has already provoked strikes and protests.
New Peruvian President Toledo has the job of carrying out
this program on the backs of the Peruvian working class. The
Peruvian people never voted on the program, drawn up in New
York and Washington.
Such is capitalist democracy.
In fact, the only way for the Peruvian elite to implement
Wall Street's economic program and at the same time guarantee
their wealth and privileges is to rely on the military and
the DINCOTE secret police--minus Montesinos, Peru's version
of Heinrich Himmler.
Lori Berenson's family and supporters are appealing her
guilty verdict to the Inter-American Commission for Human
Rights. Some members of the U.S. Congress are calling on
Peruvian President Toledo to release Berenson.
Lori Berenson deserves to be released. She has stood
steadfastly on the side of Peru's poor and working
people--despite a massive demonization campaign against her.
She refused to denounce the MRTA--a move that the Peruvian
government clearly would have viewed favorably.
She deserves to be released along with the thousands of
Peruvian political prisoners who are in jail for their
struggle for revolutionary change in Peru, for a Peru of the
workers and oppressed.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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