On January 11, 2000 Lori Berenson began a two-week hunger strike to protest the conditions she has been held under for four years in Peru. While she was not eating, she was not allowed any visitors, including US consular officials. Third hand reports give only minimal information that she is weakened, but her spirits are good. While Lori began her hunger strike, hundreds of people gathered across the US to commemorate the fourth anniversary of her wrongful conviction and to demand her release.
Lori was arrested in November of 1995 in Peru on charges of aiding the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). After being held almost incommunicado, interrogated and psychologically tortured for weeks, Lori was tried by a hooded, secret military tribunal. Without due process or any chance to defend herself, she was convicted and given a life sentence. Lori has maintained her innocence and her commitment to social justice throughout this terrifying experience.
While The Committee to Free Lori Berenson commemorates significant dates in the US, such as her birthday and conviction anniversary, Lori sits by herself with no voice to protest her situation. She is isolated in a cold concrete cell for 22 hours each day, while the remaining two hours she is allowed to walk and sit in a small concrete pen, only able to see the sky. Her parents can see her for only one hour through a metal grate each time they fly to Peru from New York. Other relatives, friends and the media are not allowed to visit.
Lori went on a hunger strike to protest her wrongful imprisonment, her conditions and the conditions of other political prisoners. Thousands of Peruvian citizens and others have been tried and convicted for terrorism by military and civil courts. The US State Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international bodies recognize these courts as unjust. Prisoners are held in life threatening conditions with inadequate food, water or heat. Since her arrest, Lori has continued to express concern for the people of Peru and the treatment of political prisoners, which aggravates the Peruvian and US governments.
Lori went to Peru to research and write about the political and economic situation for US publications. The US enjoys a beneficial economic relationship with Peru. We provide millions of dollars in aid every year for the Peruvian military and the "war on drugs" while US corporations are free to invest in Peru, draining millions of dollars that rightfully belong to the 60% of Peruvians living in poverty.
Despite recognition by the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights that Lori is "arbitrarily detained" and efforts by human rights organizations, Lori has seen little movement on the part of the US government or the Peruvian government until recently. This year, half of the US Congress urged President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to do all in their power to secure Lori's release. An amendment to withhold funds from Peru until Lori is released came very close to passing.
The Committee to Free Lori Berenson is stepping up its campaign. We need to create a level of pressure within the US that forces President Clinton and the Congress to take action for Lori and for the thousands of other prisoners unjustly held in Peru. And most of all, we need to continue the work for social justice to which Lori has dedicated herself in order to end the institutionalized violence that reigns in Peru and across the world.
CONTACT
Committee To Free Lori Berenson
PO Box 339, Berkeley CA 94701
510-893-4648 x201
kgardner@alum.mit.edu
www.FreeLori.org
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2000
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited