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Mark visited Lori for Father's Day weekend with
Lea Wood, the Vermont Coordinator of the Committee to Free Lori Berenson.
Lori and Lea have been exchanging letters since 1997. Lea is a remarkable
individual and, as she approaches her 90th birthday, serves as an
inspiration to all whom she meets.
Lea has been an activist for social justice her
entire life. A terrific writer, Lea has prepared the article below for
publication on her visit with Lori.
Photos of Lea at the airport in Cajamarca and
then at the hotel in Cajamarca following her visit with Lori can be
viewed from www.freelori.org.
—Rhoda and Mark Berenson
I first saw
Lori standing at the gate inside Huacariz prison of Cajamarca, Peru, a
slender figure in a white bib apron over jeans and a black turtleneck
sweater. She greeted her father and me with a warm hug.
My first
impression was of how beautiful she is, how self-possessed and honestly
herself. But her rosy cheeks and swollen red fingers speak of circulation
problems from her three years at 12,700 feet altitude in Yanamayo, the
thinness of her once luxuriant brown hair of impairment in her health
during 10 1/2 years of imprisonment. She is 36.
Lori led us
into a large, bright kitchen where she bakes and sells cakes, rolls, and
pastries with other prisoners. She cooked on two little stoves on the
floor consisting of wire coils encased in ceramic plugged into the wall.
We watched her
at work injecting crème into crème puffs, dipping them in chocolate. She
carried a plate of them outside to be sold. She rolled out a slab
of phyllo dough and folded it for later use.
She made us a
lunch of chicken and pasta soup, skinning a chicken breast, chopping
green beans, carrots, ginger root, squash, and shelling peas. Lori works
fast and talks fast, graceful in her movements, though she has
osteoporosis of the spine and must usually wear a body brace.
For Father's
Day she had baked a heart-shaped chocolate cake, sharing it with other
prisoners as well. Her father brought a heavy suitcase of food, and we
took her shopping list to the Central Market for more. All prisoners
depend on their families to supplement the meager prison ration. Lori's
parents alternate visits, each now making three trips a year.
Both the UN and
the Inter-American Commissions on Human Rights (IACHR) ruled in 1999 and
2002 respectively that all Lori's rights must be restored with
compensation. Peru's response was to ignore the UN Human Rights
Commission, and to challenge IACHR in the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights.
The Court's
preliminary draft decision favored her in 2004, ruling for her release
and compensation, and then—unaccountably and for the first time in its
history—two weeks later rescinded the draft decision! The 20-year
sentence stood. Lori, her parents, and her supporters had all counted on
the Court for justice.
On our second
day, Lori took us to her cell. The barred door was blocked with a strip
of sheet metal, and a board "to keep the rats out" she
explained. All concrete, 6' by 10', her bed a concrete bench against the
wall with a foam pad, and on other side her toilet area: two shelves
above a hole in the floor, a faucet at the top dripping water into a
bucket.
Lori sat in the
doorway with her guitar and sang for us. She has a lovely voice, and I
wondered: what if she could be on Peru TV and the country saw a more
positive view of her than the irate image of her staged
"presentation" in 1996 still dragged up any time she is in the
press.
Successive
Peruvian governments and the media continue to use her as a poster child
of terrorism. Interestingly, it was the policies and actions of
ex-President Fujimori, who fled to Japan to avoid trial for his crimes
against the state, that influenced Peru against Lori.
In November
2003 Lori married Anibal Apari, who was also imprisoned in Yanamayo. He
was paroled after 12.5 years, and resumed studying law. I met him in
Lima, a good-looking 42, with a quiet smile. Of a future family, Lori
says "I don't want to have a child in prison."
When I asked her how her
supporters can help, she quickly answered: "Shut down Guantanamo!"
Prison has
never stopped Lori's social activism. She writes essays for Prison Radio,
which someone reads in Spanish and English. She wrote about her 10th
anniversary in prison and about the Peru elections.
"Silence
is the voice of conspiracy," reads a large sticker on her kitchen
binder. She has proclaimed this view throughout her life in actions,
letters, articles, and hunger strikes. Indeed, she came to Peru to write
about the lives of the poor, as well as to study the culture. Now she'd
like to study nursing when free and help the poor that way.
Her
imprisonment is an indictment of governments, including our own, which
have sacrificed her for political ends. After 15 imprisoned years she is
eligible for parole. Somehow we must try for better than
that.
Visit the
English-language website: www.freelori.org or the Spanish-language
site: www.lorilibre.org. Lori's radio
commentaries are aired monthly on the websites and at www.prisonradio.org. Lori's
commentaries are recorded by Aura Bogado in both English and Spanish.
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