Just curious as to how the Dopeheads out there feel about the case of the American woman in jail in Peru on terrorism charges. She was arrested a few years back, and was given life in prison, but recently retried and given 20 years. Her parents claim that she’s being railroaded; Peruvian officials say she’s guilty as charged.
Personally, while I think eventually she will be sent back home, seeing that somewhere down the line Peru will need aid . . despite the rather unfair court system in Peru, I think there’s a lot of evidence to point out that she at the very least was involved somehow with the MRTA.
She lived at the same house as the Marxist group . . . but claims she didn’t know about any of the guns that were there? I mean, it was only that groups HEADQUARTERS!!! Her previous involvement with rebels in El Salvador doesn’t help her case either.:rolleyes:
Here’s just ONE of several articles on this subject that raises some serious questions about her past:
I also remember the 60 Minutes interview she gave . .and I left with the same impression: this woman is up to SOMETHING, and it’s not good.
Not that the Peruvian government is a bunch of angels either BUT:
I guess the lesson learned is that even if you are not a violent person, if your going to a dangerous Third World coutry, you’d better know who the hell it is that you are hanging out with if you want to avoid rotting in prison!
My wife know LB’s father, since they’re both in the same field.
My views are about the same as VV’s. There was a conspiracy to overthrow the government, which committed several murders. She sure looks as if she was a co-conspirator.
Incidentally, despite her claim of ignorance, she isn’t dumb; she had been a student at M.I.T.
I was outraged at the first conviction: how can a foreigner possibly be guilty of treason?!
But the second verdict seems about right. From the facts I’ve read in the papers, no U.S. prosecutor would have any problem putting LB on trial, and I doubt any U.S. jury would have had much trouble convicting her.
The Washington Post’s coverage was very sympathetic to LB. I mean, no foreigner would EVER come to the U.S. and plot terrorist actions[sub]cough…World Trade Center Bombings[/sub]. And if they did, we would NEVER have the right to try and convict and sentence them here in the U.S., right? :rolleyes: There was this tone in their article that because she was an idealistic American she must somehow be innocent.
I’m glad she got a new, public trial instead of a secret military trial - was anyone else creeped out by the fact that the military judges wear hoods? And as an American who has spent a bit of time in the developing world, I’m glad her sentence will be only 20 years and that they are taking into account the 5 years she has already served. Not a value judgement about her guilt or innocence, but sympathy for the conditions she’s been living under.
It’s only the military judges who wear hoods, not the “regular” judges – which tends to indicate the military judges do it so they can do whatever they want with no accountability.
I agree with magdalene on the Washington Post coverage, though. They do seem to be pro-LB, but I really haven’t read anything yet that leads me to believe that the recent trial was unfair.
Actually I think the hoods are so the judges don’t get assassinated by the same terrorist group they are prosecuting, which kind of shows you the state of mind and terror the Peruvian people have been in for many years, and why there’s not exactly a lot of “Free Lori” marches in Lima. Hooded judges is a common practice in Colombia where judges are considered target practice.
Lori Berenson should consider herself fortunate that she did what she did where she did it- we execute our terrorists here!
Yeah, I know that’s a reason given. But, if the military judges need hoods then the civilian judges would too. After all, they will be hearing cases against alleged terrorists, too.
Hmm, I thought the martial-law courts were set up specifically for Sendero Luminoso cases, but I could be wrong.
Sua, maybe “treason” and “sedition” are simply synonyms in Peruvian Spanish or law. In any case, it seems clear that’s what she was doing.
December, being MIT-smart does not preclude being naive or ignorant about many things. But I don’t believe her claim to those things either.
Look for this thing to stay in the news until some kind of “prisoner exchange” gets negotiated. She’s going to serve her term, but I bet it’s in a US jail.
I can’t comment on how “fair” the most recent trial was, because the news accounts didn’t really go into much detail. However, that Berenson didn’t know the true identity and activities of her “friends” is beyond the bounds of credibility. For one thing, she had worked with Marxists in Nicaragua and El Salvador previously. How likely is it that, as a naive journalist, she would just by sheer coincidence happen to sublet her house to the leadership of one of the main Marxist terrorist groups in Peru? And hire the wife of the commandante as her photographer? There appeared to be significant physical evidence linking her to the group, including a forged ID, her handwriting on one of their manifestos, and a map of the legislative palace where a mass kidnapping was planned. I don’t know for sure about the authenticity of any of this, but if it is it’s pretty incriminating.
She also didn’t help her case by her refusal to criticize the MRTA, or to admit they were terrorists, and her request to be transferred to the section of the prison where her former associates were held. And the MRTA didn’t help either when they asked for her to be released as one of the prisoners to be exchanged for the hostages they took at the Japanese embassy.
There is approximately as much sympathy in Peru for Berenson as there is in the U.S. for the World Trade Center or Nairobi Embassy bombers. And I wonder what the U.S. would do if we were subject to bombings like those every few weeks, as Peru was during the height of the terrorism.
I worked in Peru in 1997-1998. My Peruvian field assistant told me he had been a Communist as a student, but his revulsion at the terrorism effectively de-radicalized him. I was working at an oil camp in Amazonia when the Peruvian Army stormed the Japanese Embassy to rescue the hostages. Everyone at the camp was glued to the satellite TV during the assault. Coming in late, I asked, “How many were killed during the rescue?” and was told, “Three! Two soldiers and a hostage.” I said, “What, weren’t any of the MRTA killed?” They looked at me like I was an idiot. “No, of course they were all killed.” It was just an assumption that no prisoners would be taken. In fact, some of the guerrillas apparently did try to surrender, but were summarily gunned down. Nobody cared. I don’t say this in approval, but just to point out what the attitude was like there after so many years of terrorism.