Peru court revokes parole for US 'rebel' Lori Berenson

[dipsydoodle]

A court in Peru has revoked parole for an American woman who was imprisoned for aiding a left-wing rebel group.

Lori Berenson turned herself into police after judges ordered that she be sent back to prison to finish the last five years of her 20-year sentence.

On Monday, Berenson apologised for collaborating with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and pleaded for her parole to be upheld.

But she denied having been a member or participating in any "violent acts".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11018049

I don't know any background to this so what's the story Morning Glory ?

[roody]

1. This is so sad.

[flamingdem]

2. Pobrecita. I wish they'd cut her a break!

She was involved with the charismatic leader of the Tupac Amaru, I thought it was another one but that is what the article says, maoist group, and she's been very ill in a nasty Andes prison if memory serves.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Peru's "free trade for the rich" government sucks!

pResident Garcia has a 25% approval rating. They have good reason to fear the voters/poor majority of Peru but no reason to fear Lori Berenson except that she is an advocate for social justice.

Lori Berenson should long ago have been released. She aided armed resisters to a horrible dictatorship, as an idealistic young woman, did not directly harm anyone, and has long disavowed violence as a means of change. Many people have tried to get her released--high clergymen, U.S. presidents (Carter, Clinton, even Bush), and her parents have stuck by her through thick and thin. She was initially tried by a military tribunal with a hooded judge. In subsequent more proper trials she was acquitted of being an active militant in the leftist guerilla group (but convicted of collaboration, which she later admitted and has apologized for). She's been in prison in Peru for 15 years. She's now 40 years old. Keeping her in prison serves no purpose of justice and seems to me to be merely a vendetta of the rightwing "security" establishment which is STILL oppressing the poor in Peru, including using a helicopter gunship to mow down Indigenous protestors (anti-gold mining) armed with spears or completely unarmed.

Here is a full and objective narrative of who Lori Berenson is and what she did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Berenson

It is an outrage that, after being released on parole, she's being sent back to prison.

[naaman fletcher]

5. She's lucky to be alive at all.

Let her continue to rot.

[Judi Lynn]

4. She didn't break any laws between the time she was released and when she was sent back to prison.

One would think a lawyer could do something with that.

Clearly, the only reason she was thrown right back is because of the wave of rage from the right-wing which threatened the populariety of President Two Breakfasts Garcia, who was already scraping the bottom of all possible ratings already.

This was a purely political decision, to save face for the Presidential Porker. Very sadistic maneuver, allowing her to return, and then going back on their word with no provocation from her whatsoever.

[naaman fletcher]

6. I see

that you are back to demeaning the physical characteristics of political opponents - a very right wing thing to do. At least you haven't commented on anyones sexual habits lately.

[Peace Patriot]

7. And your veiled threat against her life and desire that a prisoner "rot" are not personal?

How come you have a vendetta against this woman, who made a mistake when she was young? Why are you promoting the notion that she would deserve assassination and/or that she should suffer disease and neglect? She has never been accused of directly harming anyone. The charge that she was a member of an armed group was overturned. 15 years "rotting" in prison is not enough of a "lesson" for youthful bad judgement, in your book?

A former leftist guerilla fighter is now president of Uruguay. The voters forgave him for his prior deeds and see his merits now. Many "truth and reconciliation" agreements have been made in other countries, with no jail for acts that were far worse than Lori Berenson's. She merely aided a guerilla group. She admitted her error. Why be so harsh--to wish her ill health, to wish her dead? Those are the sentiments of which war and murder and torture are made. Never forgive, no--even a youth in Afghanistan who might have picked up a rifle to defend his homeland, when the U.S. invaded. Round 'em up. Send them on "black flights" to Guantanamo Bay. Torture them. Anybody who looks like an "enemy." Anybody who smells like a "commie." No mercy. No forgiveness. No healing.

And the REAL criminals? The ones who order unjust war, mass murder, mayhem? The ones who rounded up 30,000 leftists in Argentina and tortured and murdered them? The ones in our country who ordered others to torture prisoners and wrote weasily, self-serving legal memos exonerating themselves? The ones who ordered up the slaughter of one hundred thousand innocent people in the bombing of Baghdad alone? The ones in Colombia who drew up lists of targeted trade unionists for death squad murders? Where is your venom for real criminals, hm?

Instead, you pick on this poor woman, who made a mistake, and has been in jail for it for 15 years, and who has admitted her mistake, disavowed violence and advocated for peaceful change. You have very screwed up priorities and values, it seems to me. Nelson Mandela made exactly the same mistake that she did--in the course of fighting apartheid in South Africa. He was imprisoned for 30 years, finally released and elected president of a country where black citizens could no longer be officially treated like slaves. Was it good or bad that he initially supported armed resistance? You think Nelson Mandela should have "rotted" in prison for 30 more years?

The oppression of the poor in Peru and throughout Latin America was equally bad. It is no wonder that people resorted to armed resistance. In your mind, there can be no forgiveness for this--even for someone who did no direct harm? And what of the oppressive acts, and the oppressors, who prompted people to take up arms in desperation? You have nothing to say about them--only about Lori Berenson?

[naaman fletcher]

8. Whose life did I make a veiled threat against?

I didn't threaten anyones life. Please stop with the false accusations.

[Peace Patriot]

10. You said "She's lucky to be alive at all."

In other words, death would be a deserved punishment.

This is someone who didn't kill anybody, and wasn't even a member of an armed group--someone who's been in prison for 15 years already for a mistake of youth. Why would you say, "She's lucky to be alive at all"? She's paid for her only crime--bad judgement. She's admitted it and has become an advocate of peace. How is she any different from the recently elected president of Uruguay--except that he WAS a member of an armed leftist group? WHY is she "lucky to be alive at all"? You think the death penalty is appropriate punishment for a mistake of judgment on the left end of the spectrum? You think somebody should have assassinated her? You think the military tribunal who initially tried her should have put her in front of a firing squad, or dumped her out of an airplane? How else can anyone construe that statement? It is a veiled threat. You hate her so much that you think death is too good for her--let her "rot" in prison. You, as God, would deprive her of life as well. But you'll settle for a life sentence of "rotting in jail."

You might as well be that black-hooded, faceless judge at the military tribunal, whom I imagine said something like this: "You're lucky to be alive at all, girlie. Be grateful that we're going to let you rot in prison forever!"

For a mistake. For bad judgement. For being a leftist.

Here's a litmus test for what you meant: Tell us what you think of President Jose Mujica of Uruguay. Do you think he is "lucky to be alive at all"? Do you think he should be "rotting" in prison for the rest of his life? Do you think that that should be his fate and that he should be grateful for it? Grateful that his torturers didn't kill him?

Now tell us how her crime was worse than his.

This is the problem with rightwing views like yours. There is no mercy. There is no forgiveness. There is only vengeance and endless war.

[naaman fletcher]

11. You have a logic problem.

I am not a black-hooded, faceless military judge, and therefore it is not a threat. Please don't attack me for your problems with basic logic. My saying that she is lucky she is alive is an observation, not a threat, and no amount of table pounding by you changes that.

[Judi Lynn]

9. You really, REALLY need to do more reading FIRST before lavishing us with your mangled views.

"Two Breakfasts" Garcia is known as "Two Breakfasts" Garcia in Peru.

[naaman fletcher]

12. The Presidential Porker?

Let's face it Judi, since the civil rights era most of civilized society, except the right wing, has recognized not to objectify people through attacking people by physical descriptions and sexual preferences. You are an exception. You should work at that as it discredits your views.

[Judi Lynn]

13. You're the exception if you think there's any reason to defend a mass murdering ass like Garcia.

I've posted material on this vile piece of crap for years. It takes a great intellect to step forward and whine that someone has insulted Alan Garcia. It's impossible to insult him enough.

It's most unlikely anyone sober would see you as a defender of the downtrodden.

[naaman fletcher]

15. I'm not defending him

I am pointing out that attacking people based on physical appearences and sexual preferences is a right-wing thing to do, which is why you are the only one who does it here.

Your point that it is ok because he is a bad guy, which he is, does not matter. There will always be differences of opinion so if attacking people based on looks is ok if the person is bad, then the right will continue to use it to objectify the left.

It is much better to hold the line that it is simply the wrong thing to do. Many heroes of civil rights, particularly feminists have fought long and hard to eradicate this sort of objectification of people. Please don't mock their hard fought victories by making a "yeah but I don't like him" exception.

Get with the program. Progressives around the world know that looks and sexual habits are not an acceptable subject matter in politics.

[rabs]

14. To naaman fletcher, how about answering

the question Peace Patriot posed to you.
-------------
Here's a litmus test for what you meant: Tell us what you think of President Jose Mujica of Uruguay. Do you think he is "lucky to be alive at all"? Do you think he should be "rotting" in prison for the rest of his life? Do you think that that should be his fate and that he should be grateful for it? Grateful that his torturers didn't kill him?

Now tell us how her crime was worse than his.

----------------------

Pepe Mujica was convicted in 1971 of killing an Uruguayan police officer. To you is that not worse than what Lori idealistic did in Peru?

Oh, to give you a thrill, Mujica was kept "rotting" in the bottom of a dry well for two of the 14 years he was imprisoned by the military dictatorship. He was also shot six times when he was captured. Groovy, huh. But unfortunately for you, he is now president of Uruguay.

[Peace Patriot]

16. I don't think that NF will reply, because what he/she said was indefensible.

Lori Berenson has spent 15 years in prison for a youthful mistake, and NF thinks that she is "lucky to be alive at all," and wants her to "rot" in prison. I don't understand attitudes like this. I don't think that society's punishments should be aimed at revenge; they should be aimed at redemption, change for the better, healing, forgiveness, re-integration into society. Berenson is a prime candidate to be regarded in this way. She has obviously spent her time in prison thinking, reflecting, growing up. She married in prison and had a child, who is now 1 and a half years old. She has changed. Times have changed. Obviously the voters in Uruguay think so. So did the voters in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly 30 years for initially supporting armed resistance, and became a leading peace advocate during that time and an ikon of the end of apartheid. Perhaps when Peruvian society undergoes a similar transformation and stops oppressing the Indigenous, and stops pesticide spraying of farm workers and stops toadying to multinational mining corporations and starts respecting Mother Earth, and stops bowing and scraping to the U.S. and "free trade for the rich," they will finally see how wrong it is to keep this woman in prison.

Perhaps that is what NF fears--society changing and making rightwingers' penchant for war, revenge and punishment outmoded.

[rabs]

17. All it would have taken were a few words from Obama

when he met with Garcia at the White House on June 1, after it became known that Lori would be out of prison on parole.

Another big Obama disappointment re Latin America, and to make it worse, it involves a U.S. citizen and her infant.

~~~~~~~~~~ snips -----------

Garcia Belaunde clarified that the presidents did not talk about Lori Berenson, the U.S. citizen convicted of terrorism in Peru who was released on parole last week after serving 15 years of a 20-year sentence.

The Chancellor said that “most Peruvians don't want her to stay here” and that he hopes that there is any legal way to allow her return to the U.S.

Garcia Belaunde also minimized the anti-Garcia protest that took place yesterday outside the White House, during the presidents' meeting.

and ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ like the hired help ~~~~~~~~~~~

RPP reported that activists from Amazon Watch prevented President Garcia from entering the White House by the front door, so he had to use the back door.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news-12352-world-obama-praises-perus-economy-presidents-meeting

(edit to add photo)