Peru president: New Yorker Berenson not a threat

[Judi Lynn]

Peru president: New Yorker Berenson not a threat
By CARLA SALAZAR (AP) – 13 hours ago

LIMA, Peru — President Alan Garcia says he doesn't consider Lori Berenson a threat to Peru, suggesting he may be inclined to commute the New Yorker's accomplice-to-terrorism sentence so she can go home.

A three-judge panel returned the 40-year-old Berenson and her toddler son to prison on Aug. 18 after prosecutors objected to her May parole, calling her a danger to society.

Garcia said in an interview with CNN broadcast Tuesday night that while he understands many Peruvians feel Berenson should complete her 20-year term, he personally has sympathy for the activist and her 16-month-old son, Salvador.

"How much can Peru really fear a woman who spent 15 years in prison?" Garcia said. "She has a little boy, and that moves me a lot."

She "is not a threat to Peru. That's over. It's part of the past," he added.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8FwwINKI2W--0as4bBJ2IZmXbWQD9I3U1V80

[Judi Lynn]

1. Alan Garcia's 1st term, starting in 1985, was hideous. He's the violent one here.

Here's his Wiki:

~snip~
The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions in Peru and contributed in part to the rise of the violent rebel movement Shining Path, which launched the internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electric towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, allegedly committing human rights violations which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned to death by the Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the Cayara massacre (May 1988) in which some thirty were killed and dozens disappeared, and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency. His own personal involvement in these events is not clear. García was allegedly tied to the paramilitary Rodrigo Franco Command, which is accused of carrying out political murders in Peru during García's presidency. A US declassified report, written in late 1987, said that García's party, APRA, and top government officials were running a paramilitary group, responsible for the attempted bombing of the El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, sent people to train in North Korea and may have been involved in executions.<3> According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, the report made it clear that it believed that García was giving the orders.<3>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garc%C3%ADa

~~~~~
You may remember his massacre of Amazon indigenous protesters several years ago:

Share "Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River," Say Native Protesters
Monday 08 June 2009

by: Milagros Salazar | Inter Press Service

Lima - There are conflicting reports on a violent incident in Peru's Amazon jungle region in which both police officers and indigenous protesters were killed.

The authorities, who describe last Friday's incident as a "clash" between the police and protesters manning a roadblock, say 22 policemen and nine civilians were killed.

But leaders of the two-month roadblock say at least 40 indigenous people, including three children, were killed and that the authorities are covering up the massacre by throwing bodies in the river.

And foreign activists on the scene in the town of Bagua, in the northern province of Amazonas, report that the police opened fire early in the morning on the unarmed protesters, some of whom were still sleeping, and deliberately mowed them down as they held up their arms or attempted to flee.

In response, the activists quote eyewitnesses as saying, another group of indigenous people who were farther up the hill seized and killed a number of police officers, apparently in "self-defence."

National ombudswoman Beatriz Merino reported Sunday night that at least 24 police and 10 civilians had been killed, and that 89 indigenous people had been wounded and 79 arrested. But the figures continue to grow.

~snip~
The leaders of the indigenous movement are demanding that the curfew prohibiting people from leaving their homes in Bagua between 3:00 PM and 6:00 AM be lifted. According to Kategari, the curfew is being used to conceal the bodies of the Indians who were killed.

"Our brothers and sisters in Bagua say the police have been collecting the bodies, putting them in black bags and throwing them in the river from a helicopter," Kategari told IPS. "The government cannot make our dead disappear."

There is great insecurity and fear in the jungle, he added. "People are calling us on the telephone, desperate." He said he is preparing a list of victims based on the names he has been given by people in Bagua, to counteract the official reports.

Gregor MacLennan, programme coordinator for the international organisation Amazon Watch, said "All eyewitness testimonies say that Special Forces opened fire on peaceful and unarmed demonstrators, including from helicopters, killing and wounding dozens in an orchestrated attempt to open the roads. "It seems that the police had come with orders to shoot. This was not a clash, but a coordinated police raid with police firing on protesters from both sides of their blockade," added the activist, speaking from the town of Bagua. "Today I spoke to many eyewitnesses in Bagua reporting that they saw police throw the bodies of the dead into the Marañon river from a helicopter in an apparent attempt by the government to underreport the number of indigenous people killed by police," said MacLennan, in an Amazon Watch statement.

"Hospital workers in Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande corroborated that the police took bodies of the dead from their premises to an undisclosed location," he added.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/061009K



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http://www.indymedia.org.nyud.net:8090/images//2009/06/925339.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

2. Peru's President Says Lori Berenson Isn't A Threat

Peru's President Says Lori Berenson Isn't A Threat

http://gothamist.com.nyud.net:8090/attachments/nyc_arts_john/090910berenson.jpg

After winning parole in May, American citizen and New York native Lori Berenson was sent back to prison in Peru, where she's spent the last 15 years for her participation in a foiled terrorist plot to take the Peruvian Congress hostage in the mid-'90s. Prosecutors claim she still has links to the Tupac Amaru rebel group that planned the attack, and a three-judge panel agreed that errors in the parole ruling justified locking Berenson up again. But during an interview with CNN, Peruvian president Alan Garcia seemed inclined to commute her sentence.

"Berenson is not a threat to Peru," Garcia said. "That's over. It's part of the past. How much can Peru really fear a woman who spent 15 years in prison? She has a little boy, and that moves me a lot." Garcia also said that while he understands many Peruvians feel Berenson should complete her 20-year term, there are other factors that must be weighed, including relations with Washington and U.S. public opinion. He would not indicate when he plans to make a decision about granting Berenson clemency, but the AP reports that he has previously said that he wanted to wait for the judicial process to run its course.

http://gothamist.com/2010/09/09/perus_president_says_berenson_not_a.php