Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen serving a life sentence for treason in Peru, will be the topic of two public presentations this weekend.
Berenson was a passenger on a public bus in Lima, Peru when she was arrested Nov. 30, 1995. She was “held incommunicado,” tried by a hooded military tribunal and convicted of being a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Charged with aiding the group in planning an attack on the Peruvian Congress, Berenson, who has consistently maintained her innocence, has served more than four years of her life sentence, which provides no chance for parole.
Kristen Gardner, Berenson’s college roommate, and Gail Taylor, national coordinator of the Committee to Free Lori Berenson, will speak this weekend about the case and “the international, economic and political conditions” which have led to Berenson’s imprisonment. The first event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Friends Meeting House, 2274 Onyx St. The following day at 2 p.m., the location switches to the McNail-Riley House, 601 West 13th Ave. Both events are free.
The main objective of Gardner and Taylor’s speaking tour, which will take them from California to Washington, is to gain support for a letter writing campaign directed at President Clinton to get him to take action, said Joanie Levine, co-organizer of the Eugene events.
Berenson, a 30-year-old human-rights activist from New York and journalist with an interest in Central and Latin American culture, history, economics and politics, had spent an extensive amount of time in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Peru prior to her arrest. She was working on assignment as a free-lance journalist for two U.S. publications — Modern Times and Third World Viewpoint — documenting the effects of poverty on women in Peru.
“The case of Lori Berenson is so startlingly unjust that we can’t really be silent about it,” said Scott Miksch, coordinator of the Committee in Solidarity with Central American People. “No one has been allowed to see evidence against her. Basically it is their word against hers.”
Miksch described the MRTA as “one of several armed insurgent groups responding to the grinding poverty and injustice” in Peru.
Miksch said allegations which claim that Berenson rented a “safe” house for the MRTA in Lima are unfounded and Levine seconds that assertion.
“The U.S. government did investigate the ‘safe’ house and that charge was disqualified,” Levine said. “Her name was not on the lease and the landlord had never seen her before.”
However, according to a guest commentary by Frank Balzas published in the July 31 issue of the Register-Guard, Berenson “was arrested with the wife of the top MRTA leader, Nestor Cerpa” and is referred to as the “gringa terrorist” in Peru.
Balzas, who served at the U.S. Embassy in Peru from 1994 to 1998 and supervised the intelligence section for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, contended that when authorities attempted to arrest MRTA members [at the ‘safe’ house] an extended shoot-out ensued, resulting in several deaths.
For extensive information on Berenson’s case visit the Web site at www.freelori.org.