Japanese section of the Fourth International, addressed an appeal August 31 to Fernando Belatnde Terry, president of Peru, asking him to halt the trial of Hugo Blanco and his co-defendants and release them at once.
The appeal was signed by T. Furusato for the International Department and Y. Takamine for the Kansai Regional Committee of the JRCL.
The Japanese Trotskyists wrote the appeal in excellent Spanish and sent a copy to World Outlook, from which we have made the following translation:
"The Japanese Revolutionary Communist League (Japanese section of the Fourth International) recently learned through the United Secretariat of its world organization that your government has decided to hold a military trial of our Peruvian comrade Hugo Blanco, heroic leader of the Peruvian peasants and a martyr of the inhuman repression of the reactionary forces and Yankee imperialisn.
"The FIR (Frente de Izquierda Revolucionario], peasant movement of Peru, which Hugo Blanco, together with his guerrilla comrades, led, enjoys the popular support of almost all people in Peru and the world. The actions of Hugo Blanco, for which your govern- ~~ ment is trying him, represent the fundamental interests of the land- “~less Peruvian peasants who live under miserable conditions, brutally oppressed by the reactionary .Peruvian regime. Your government never had the right to bring the revolutionary Hugo Blanco to trial. History will absolve him. ;
"We know that the Peruvian bourgeoisie and latifundists and their agents, who are in power, are resisting the inevitable course of history, utilizing in Ayacucho. reactionary Cuban forces along with Yankee imperialism. The reactionary Cubans constitute ghosts of Cuba's past. It is the Peruvian bourgeoisie and latifundists and their agents who cooperate with Yankee imperialism who should be sentenced to death.
"We, voicing the feeling of profound sympathy which the revo- | ~~ lutionary Japanese people feel for the Peruvian guerrillas, state our militant solidarity with Hugo Blanco and his co-defendants, and we make the following demand of you:
"Stop the military trial of Hugo Blanco and immediately release the prisoners!
"Long live the Peruvian socialist revolution of the workers and peasants!
"Long live solidarity between the revolutionary militants of Peru_and Japan!"