American Released After 15 Years in Peruvian Prison

Seven years ago I was in Peru and saw from a distance the jail where Lori Berenson was being held. High up in the barren, frigid Andean highlands, I remember thinking to myself, "man, it would suck to be in jail there."

Lori was released from prison today after serving 15 years for assisting the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Lori was originally sentenced to a life term and always maintained she was innocent.

Image Source: Life Magazine

Online Sources: BBC News

Peru: Lori Berenson transferred for treatment

A U.S. citizen imprisoned since 1995 for supposedly aiding Peruvian rebels has been allowed to transfer to another facility due to her pregnancy.

Peruvian prison officials permitted Lori Berenson to be relocated in order to treat a back ailment brought on by her pregnancy. According to Reuters a media frenzy surrounded her transfer today as she underwent a health examination before being taken to a Lima jail.

The 39-year-old is currently five months pregnant and, should she successfully give birth, will be allowed to raise the baby until its three-years-old. The father of the child is a paroled former guerilla she met in jail and married in 2003.

Berenson’s imprisonment has been a source of controversy with her supporters alleging that she was unfairly punished by a kangaroo court. Berenson’s prison sentence was originally life in jail yet that was reduced in a retrial to twenty years in prison.

In a 2000 interview with CBS News, Berenson professed her innocence:

"The charges against me are preposterous and they're obviously false," Berenson said. "I am not a terrorist by any means; quite the contrary I do not believe in any act of terrorism"…

"I believe in human beings," said Lori Berenson. "I believe in the rights of justice. I believe that everyone has the right to live with dignity"…

Mario Cavagnario, chief investigator in the Berenson case, claimed she was part of the (Tupac Amaru guerilla) organization. "All the people around her in Peru belong to the MRTA. In Spanish we say: Tell me who you run with and I'll tell you who you are."

Image- AP (“Lori Berenson, of New York, is escorted in handcuffs by police as she is transferred to a different jail before undergoing a medical exam in Lima, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, New York Daily News, Committee to Free Lori Berenson, Reuters, CBS News, MSNBC

Reports: Lori Berenson is pregnant

She is a U.S. citizen who was convicted in 1995 accused aiding Peru’s Tupac Amaru guerillas. To some she was a gringa interloper who knowingly helped one of Peru’s most ruthless terrorist organizations. To others she is innocent and was unfairly jailed by a Fujimori-era kangaroo court. She is Lori Berenson and she currently sits in a Peruvian prison serving a 20-yeaR sentence. (Originally it was life in jail).

According to press reports out of the Andean nation, prison doctors found that Berenson is approximately four weeks pregnant. “It's a euphoric feeling for us,” said the father of the 37-year-old who has been wed since 2003 to a former guerilla she met in prison.

Berenson’s sentence finishes in 2011 (assuming no other charges are filed against her). According to Peruvian law, women whom give birth in jail can keep the child for the first few years.

Peru’s RPP Noticias claims that Berenson is not in good health despite her pregnancy:

A su embarazo se suman problemas de salud en la columna y el oído debido a lo cual se estarían realizando gestiones a través de la embajada de los Estados Unidos para que esta sea trasladada a otro penal con la finalidad de recibir mejor atención en un hospital.

[Trnsaltion – Along with her pregnancy she has had health problems relating to her spinal column and ear. This is why gestures are being made to the U.S. Embassy so she can be transferred to another facility and then recive better attention at a hospital.]

Image- CNN

Sources (English)- ABC News, Reuters, Free Lori Berenson, Opinionjournal.com

Sources (Spanish)- RPP Noticias, La Republica