U.S. woman jailed in Peru defends guerrillas (fwd)

["Bryan A. Alexander" <bnalexan@xxxxxxxxx>]

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Bryan Alexander
Department of English
University of Michigan
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 96 02:45:13 -0800
From: Neighborhood Queen <clyde@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Multiple recipients of list <riot-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: U.S. woman jailed in Peru defends guerrillas

U.S. woman jailed in Peru defends guerrillas
a1719LBY042reulb
d i BC-PERU-AMERICAN   01-08 0542
^BC-PERU-AMERICAN (PICTURE)@
 ^U.S. woman jailed in Peru defends guerrillas@
    By James Craig
    LIMA, Jan 8 (Reuter) - An American woman accused of
belonging to a band of Marxist guerrillas allegedly planning to
seize Peru's Congress defended the rebels on Monday as a
revolutionary group supporting the poor.
    ``If it is a crime to worry about the subhuman conditions in
which the majority in this country live, then I'd accept my
sentence,'' Lori Helene Berenson, 26, shouted to reporters
during a presentation by Peru's anti-terrorist police.
    ``That is not love of violence. That is not being a
terrorist criminal. In the MRTA there are no terrorist
criminals. It's a revolutionary movement.''
    Berenson, of New York City, was arrested on November 30 and
charged with being a member of Peru's pro-Cuban Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The treason charge is reserved
for cases of ``aggravated terrorism,'' and military prosecutors
have asked that she be jailed for 30 years.
    A ``faceless'' or anonymous military judge is expected on
Tuesday to deliver a verdict on Berenson, her Peruvian lawyer
said. Grimaldo Achahui told Reuters he presented an oral defence
on Monday and the judge had 24 hours to rule.
    Achahui has asked the judge to send the case to a civilian
court, where Berenson would be tried on a charge of simple
terrorism, which also carries a maximum life sentence but offers
a better opportunity to present a defence.
    Berenson's father Mark Berenson said from New York that the
family is anxiously ``hoping for the best.''
    ``Realistically, the best would be if the case were sent to
a civilian court. If she's in civilian court she will have some
chance of a fair trial,'' he said.
    Her case should go to civilian court because she is neither
a Peruvian citizen nor an arms trafficker, two requirements for
being charged with treason, he added.
    He called the charge against her ``crazy,'' Peru's justice
system ``inhuman'' and his daughter ``a tough person and
stoic.''
    Peruvian police claim Berenson, known as ``Comrade Lucia,''
rented a house in Lima as a front for rebels and gathered
intelligence on Congress by posing as a reporter for U.S-based
magazines Third World Viewpoint and Modern Times.
    They also claim she travelled to Panama in 1994 with
suspected MRTA member Pacifico Castrellon, a Panamanian, and
established links to Chilean and Panamanian arms traffickers.
    Berenson, sporting black jeans, maroon jacket and white
shirt and flanked by a pair of female police officers, was
paraded before reporters on Monday afternoon at anti-terrorist
police headquarters in downtown Lima.
    She did not respond to questions shouted by reporters,
instead giving her own statement.
    ``I am being condemned for worrying about the hunger and
misery that exists in this country,'' she said. ``There is an
institutionalized violence that has killed the best sons of the
people and have condemned the children to die of hunger.''
    Berenson said she ``loved'' Peru and that ``while that
mistake will cost me years of prison, I will not stop loving
this country ... I will be hoping for this situation to change
some day.''
    Violent campaigns by the the MRTA and the larger Maoist
Shining Path have cost 30,000 lives and $23 billion in
infrastructure damage since 1980.
 ^REUTER@
Reut18:59 01-08-96

Reuter N:Copyright 1996, Reuters News Service


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