DEMAND RELEASE OF HUGO BLANCO
The troops sent out by the Belaunde government to try to put down the guerrilla fighters in the Andes were given orders "not to give any quarter and not to take any prisoners," According to the press, a government spokesman said that the aim was to end "once and for all the extremist subversion" and that no live "martyrs" were wanted.
This savage attitude has given rise to fresh fears for the life of Hugo Blanco, Peru's best-known peasant leader who has been held without trial for more than two years in the jail at Arequipa in the southern part of the country.
He is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War which announced that it would take no prisoners in the current battles, It is possible that the officials of this ministry will now decide to give Hugo Blanco a drumhead courtmartial to provide a "legal precedent" for summary executions of prisoners captured in the current struggle in the Andes,
The charge levelled against Hugo Blanco is responsibility for the killing of a gunman employed by a landlord, one Hernan Briceno,. Hugo Blanco has assumed political responsibility for the peasant actions in which Briceno was killed.
‘The real accusation against Hugo Blanco, of course, is organizing and mobilizing the peasants and showing them by precept and
example the road to freedom,
In addition to Hugo Blanco, fears are felt for the safety of other leaders similarly held in Belaunde's prisons without trial, including Daniel Pereyra, Vladimiro Valer, Félix Ceballos, Juan Quesada, Fortunato Vargas, Antonio Cartolfn and hundreds of lesser known figures.
A committee is being formed in Argentina to set in motion a wide movement to demand the immediate release of Hugo Blanco, Pending announcements by the committee, expressions of solidarity and funds to help in the defense of Hugo Blanco can be sent to the weekly newspaper La Verdad, Casilla de Correo No. 7, Suc. 3, Buenos Aires, Argentina,