14 December, 2000

FREE LORI BERENSON: Day 1840 of her wrongful incarceration in Peru

Dear friends,

Since November 30, 1995, Lori Berenson, a US citizen, has been held political prisoner in Peru. Please contact the White House in the US, or the Peruvian embassy in Canada, and pressure the Peruvian government to let her go - now!

Bring Lori home for the holidays.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Washington Post, Tuesday, December 12, 2000; Page A46

"Free Lori Berenson"

Lori Berenson has been held in Peruvian prisons for five years [front page, Nov. 4] and at present is awaiting a "civilian trial", although there is no evidence that a civilian trial in Peru would be any fairer than the military one she already had.

I too, was a political prisoner in Peru, arrested in 1993 and held under the charge of "Apology for Terrorism" after I photographed the insurgent group, the MRTA. Under the Peruvian regime, my crime was simply taking pictures of an armed opposition.

During my detention I was made to listen as guards raped and tortured several prisoners. When, after several days, the US Embassy finally got hold of me, the first question out of the consular officer's mouth was "How did they torture you?" not "Were you tortured?" Torture was matter-of-factly accepted by the US Embassy in Lima, an embassy that has ignored Ms. Berenson's plight.

The corrupt and totalitarian US-backed Peruvian regime, headed by intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos and ex-president Alberto Fujimori, which Ms. Berenson had irked, is on the run and discredited. In this power vacuum, the US Embassy could easily act to get her released now.

It is not too late for the United States to try to make up for the harm it did supporting a dictatorship, first in the name of anticommunism, then in the name of fighting drugs. At the very least, the United States can and should get Ms. Berenson released.

JEREMY BIGWOOD
Washington
e: bigwood@rcn.com

© 2000 The Washington Post Company

PLEASE CONTACT

In the US, call the White House hotline. Flood the operators with calls from November 30 through December 25. 1-800-663-9566 or 202-456-1111 (press 0 for operator)

In Canada, contact the Peruvian Embassies:
10 St. Mary Street, Suite 301
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1P9
Tel.: (416) 963-9696
Fax: (416) 963-9074

Embassy of the Republic of Peru
130 Albert Street Suite 1901
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 5G4
Tel: (613) 238-1777
Fax: (613) 232-3062
e-mail: emperuca@magi.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Committee to Free Lori Berenson
110 Maryland Avenue, NE, Suite 102
Washington DC 20002
T: 202-548-8480
F: 202-544-9613
E: gtaylor@freelori.org
W: www.freelori.org

THANK-YOU

Rights Action [Guatemala Partners]
info@rightsaction.org
www.rightsaction.org