Angeles, California, under the auspices of the U.S.Committee for Justice for Latin American Political Prisoners, strong appeals were made in behalf of Hugo Blanco; and the audience of 125 voted to send a telegram to President Belafnde demanding the immediate release of the Peruvian peasant leader who was sentenced to 25 years in prison and then subjected to the additional hazard of the death penalty when he appealed the savage verdict.
The speakers included John Gerassi, professor of journalism at New York University, author of The Great Fear, a book on developments in Latin America. Gerassi is vice-chairman of the U.S.Committee for Justice for Latin American Political Prisoners and chairman of the American branch of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. He recently returned from north Vietnam where he was an investigator for the International War Crimes Tribunal.
Gerassi said that the guerrilla movements of Latin America face the same enemy -- U.S. capital -- as the Vietnamese freedom fighters. Experience has taught the guerrilla leaders not to count on a quick easy victory. It is necessary for them to combine their efforts in several countries so that no small nation has to stand up to the wrath of American imperialism alone.
Gerassi said that American liberals are the worst enemies of the poor people of the world. They provide a liberal cover for the imperialist plans of the American capitalists and then help carry them out.
Timothy Harding, professor of Latin-American history at California State College at Los Angeles, dealt with the case of Hugo Blanco and other political prisoners in Peru, Mexico and Venezuela. He said that the number of political prisoners has increased considerably since the Cuban Revolution and that responsibility for this rests ultimately with the U.S. government.
The unpopular reactionary regimes in Latin America would not have the strength to jail anyone if it were not for the power which the U.S. State Department exerts behind the scenes.
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