A U.S. ‘terrorist’ finds no mercy in Peru

Released on parole in May after serving 15 years of a 20-year sentence, Lori Berenson was sent back to prison this week because she failed to properly notify police of a change in address.

Too bad it was only a technicality, said María Teresa García in Peru’s Expreso. “The highly dangerous terrorist Lori Berenson” was returned to prison this week with her infant son after a court temporarily revoked her parole, saying she had failed to properly notify police of a change in address. Most Peruvians are thrilled to see this American woman back behind bars. Berenson, 40, was a member of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, the communist terrorist group responsible for dozens of killings in Peru in the 1980s and ’90s. She was arrested in 1995 along with the wife of a top leader of the MRTA while both were posing as journalists to gain entry to the Peruvian Congress. A military court convicted her of terrorism, although the verdict was downgraded to abetting terrorism after she was retried in civilian court. After serving just 15 years of her 20-year sentence, Berenson was released on parole in May, along with her 15-month-old son by “another MRTA terrorist,” whom she met and married while in jail. Her husband was released before her and is now acting as her lawyer. With his help, she could be out again in months.

The media circus surrounding the Berenson case is no credit to Peru, said Efraín Rúa in La Primera. Domestic, as well as foreign, reporters “swarmed” Berenson as she returned to prison, “harassing” her and “making the child in her arms cry.” Some members of Peru’s Congress say the government has treated her no better. They note that when she was arrested she was in possession of neither weapons nor false documents, and only her fraternization with known terrorists condemned her. “I am an enemy of terrorism,” said Congressman Javier Valle Riestra this week, “but I am also a supporter of human rights,” and the treatment of Berenson “is a disgrace.” Riestra says Berenson was a naïve young idealist who idolized Che Guevara but never actually committed violence. To say that now, as a 40-year-old wife and mother, she is a danger to society is simply ridiculous.

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