Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Peru Frees Radical Marxist From Prison

I have to figure her next stop is a featured blogger spot at the Huffington Post or Media Matters, or perhaps as a chief fundraiser for the DNC.
New York radical Lori Berenson was sprung from a Peruvian prison yesterday after serving 15 years for aiding revolutionaries.

A judge in Lima said she had "completed re-education, rehabilitation and re-socialization" and demonstrated "positive behavior."

"I'm just amazed that it happened," her jubilant mother, NYU Professor Rhoda Berenson, told The Post.

"She knew and we knew that she deserved it. We're just happy they followed their own laws and did what was required."

She spoke to her daughter after getting the news via text message from someone in the courtroom.

"It's been very hectic since we got the news," Rhoda said at the family's East Side home.

"We have been trying to get her out from behind bars for 14½ years, so its been a lot of 'try this, try that.' "

Berenson's father Mark, a college professor in New Jersey, was overjoyed.

"I let out a shout that I think my daughter heard in Peru," he said.

He and his wife have been working tirelessly toward getting Berenson out of jail.

"There are lots and lots of people around the world who have helped us and who have been working so hard for Lori to be released," her mom said.

One of the conditions for Lori's parole is that she remain in Peru until 2015, the year her 20-year sentence is up.

She is expected to be freed before the end of the week and will work as a translator at the nonprofit Office of the Americas.

The 40-year-old left-wing activist was represented at her parole hearing by her lawyer husband, Anibal Apari Sanchez, a former member of the insurgent Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA.
So nice to see she'll be spending time with the far-left Office of the Americas. Nothing like staying close to your roots.
The Office of the Americas is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of international justice and peace through broad based educational programs. Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, the Office of the Americas is a recognized source of documentation and analysis of current international events with a focus on the foreign policy of the United States.

Through its public education campaign, the Office of the Americas works to reach constituencies of students, religious and human rights organizations and all others concerned about issues of international justice and peace. Our goal is to end the long-standing international culture of militarism.
Here are their current campaigns.
Help civilian victims of the US occupation of IraqWe work to facilitate community actions that directly benefit injured Iraqi children and their families.

Witness Against Torture: Shut Down Guantanamo action
Watch this 6 minute video by Danny Burns about the witness in Washington, DC on that took place on April 18th.
The have a rather interesting recommended reading list.

I'm sure she'll be properly rehabbed reading Hugo Chavez books. Their website, naturally, links to all sorts of radical left groups, including Code Pink and ANSWER.

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