Vol. 4, No. 36 November 18, 1966
HUGO BLANCO'S LIFE AGAIN AT STAKE
Hugo Blanco has once again been placed under threat of execution. The sudden turn in the case of the Peruvian peasant leader, who was sentenced September 8 to twenty-five years in prison, to be served in the grim island fortress of El Frontén, came November 4 when the Lima papers announced the new move by the prosecution.
The defense had appealed the savage sentence passed by a military tribunal in Tacna. The appeal is now before the Supreme Council of Military Justice [Consejo de Justicia Militar]. This body of military officers was to review the Tacna court record between November 7 and 12 and then render its verdict. The date for this was not announced.
The prosecution answered the legal moves of the defense by demanding that the appeals body sentence Hugo Blanco to death, alleging that he was guilty of "premeditated murder" [homicidio calificado]. In the trial at Tacna, where the military police acted as both prosecution and judge, the prosecuting attorney did not ask for death but for twenty-five years in prison. A consulting judge [auditor] at the Tacna trial, Fernandez Hernani, recommended the death penalty, but the court did not follow his advice in view of the widespread support Hugo Blanco was receiving on an international scale. The prosecution hinged its arguments on the fact that three policemen were killed during efforts of the Peruvian military to repress the peasant movement headed by Hugo Blanco. Actually, Hugo Blanco is the main political prisoner in the hands of the Bela-
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-Gnde government. He and twenty-eight others were held in prison at Arequipa without charges for more than three years until the authorities felt that the political atmo- _Sphere in Peru made it possible to dispose of this courageous political opponent with- “out touching off a major upheaval.
ya The danger for Hugo Blanco is now even graver than at the opening of the Tacna trial. Under Peru's former military code, an unjust decision by the Supreme Council of - Military Justice could be appealed to the Supreme Court. Last year, however, during a rabid McCarthy-—type witch-hunt, the parliament enacted a new code. This bars any appeal from the decisions handed down by the Supreme Council.
To save Hugo Blanco an immediate mobilization of international support is required. Student organizations and sectors of the labor movement in Peru will do what they can on a national scale; but they face a big obstacle in the witch-hunt atmosphere still prevailing in the country. In addition, the defense is seriously hampered by lack of funds.
The National Executive Committee of the Frente de Izquierda Revolucionario [Left Revolutionary Front], the organization headed by Hugo Blanco, has appealed for demonstrations of solidarity. Declarations protesting the new threat to Hugo Blanco's life and asking that he be granted an immediate amnesty should be cabled to the Consejo Supremo de Justicia, Lima, Peru. Similar cables should be sent to Presidente Fernando Belatinde Terry, Lima, Peru. Copies of these should be airmailed to Hugo Blanco's attorney, Dr. Alfredo Battilana, Av. Nicola de Pierola, 966; Oficina 215, Lima, Peru.
Similar protests and appeals for an immediate amnesty should be lodged with consulates and embassies of the Peruvian government in every possible area. Maximum publicity should be sought for these protests through accompanying demonstrations.
Persons who rallied to the support of Hugo Blanco at the time of the Tacna trial should be asked to renew their appeals and to do whatever they can to widen public knowledge and indignation over this fresh threat to Hugo Blanco's life.
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