BLANCO GAINS RESPITE
[Héctor Béjar, himself a political prisoner in Peru, wrote a letter December 30 to friends in Paris. Among other things he described the present status of the Hugo Blanco case. These paragraphs were published in the January issue of La Quatriéme Internationale, the newspaper of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste, French section of the Fourth International. The translation of Béjar's report below is by World Outlook.]
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Hugo Blanco's situation is as follows: Two days ago, the defense had not yet presented its brief; it will do so this week since the tribunal called it to order. Once the brief is presented, the opinion of the advisory judge is required and he must study the dossier. Meanwhile, on January 15, the tribunal goes on vacation until April. In addition, many military figures, including some members of the tribunal, are taking out their retirement. It seems that the present members of the tribunal have been startled by the international protest and don't want "to have this death on their conscience." They prefer to leave the responsibility to those who will replace them because they burned their fingers in this business. For this reason I believe they will prefer to drag it out, so that their names won't be mixed up with such a death sentence.
Nevertheless it is necessary to remain very vigilant, because it could be that they have been waiting all this time for the campaign for Hugo to die down, for people to forget the thing a little, and then they will offer us a surprise when Parliament is not in session and the university students are on vacation. Above all, it must not be forgotten that_a death sentence is carried out within 24 hours.
advantage of the time gained in order to broaden it.
SQUARE