repression is sweeping Peru. In recent days ferocious persecution has been unleashed against militants of the left. Hundreds have been detained. Hundreds of outrages have been perpetrated. These include holding incommunicado the families of defendants alleged to be implicated in a bank robbery in Lima which the authorities say was committed by “extremist commandos" and which was utilized as the pretext for unleashing the present wave of persecution.
The reactionary press has likewise opened a scandalous anti-Communist publicity campaign as a means of covering up and camouflaging the current infractions and violations of the law.
In Trujillo, the chairman of the Federacién de Estudiantes del Pert, Ruffo Carcamo, together with many student leaders, was seized. Student meetings have been broken up by the police with force, resulting in many injured, even shotguns being fired at the demonstrators. Several students were each blinded in one eye.
This is the atmosphere in which it was announced that the trial had been set in January for Ricardo Gadea, Erik Arata and Dante de la Cruz, guerrilla fighters and leaders of the 1965 insurrectional movement, who have been held in prison for two years, and Enrique Amaya Quintana and Oscar Alvarado Araijo, who are named as “fugitives from justice." The prosecution is demanding sentences ranging from four to eight years in prison.
The trial, however, is a travesty stained with blood. Enrique Amaya was arrested last April by army forces. He then "disappeared" while being held. His captors have refused up to now to respond to the inquiries and denunciations made by our CODDEH [Comité de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos -- Committee for the Defense of Human Rights] and other organizations and figures in Peru and the
rest of the world. After refusing to give
any information whatsoever on the circun-
stances surrounding the disappearance of
the political leader and guerrilla fight-
er, Enrique Amaya Quintana, the Peruvian
military now seek to serve him with a
five-year prison sentence as a "fugitive
from justice."
In addition, it is clear that the
minimum legal rights are not being ob-
served in the trial against Gadea and his
comrades. It is possible that the sen-
tences demanded against them [which are
unexpectedly mild in view of the possible
death sentence provided by new legisla-
tion] are only a smoke screen designed to
lull public sympathy for the defendants,
and that in the trial itself the sentences
will be arbitrarily increased to accord
with the repressive goals of the military
judges.
Justifiably alarmed, the CODDEH
appeals for solidarity from all progres-
sive individuals and organizations
throughout the world in the form of pro-
tests against the travesty of justice
represented by the trial. We must demand
that the Peruvian government and the mil-
itary, who presume to sit as judges,
reply to our requests for official in-
formation on the death of Enrique Amaya,
and that minimum legal norms be observed
in the trial of Ricardo Gadea, Erik Arata,
Dante de la Cruz and others. Let us show
them that they cannot act without being
called to account and that the world is
watching them. This is the kind of im-
mediate aid needed by the people of Peru
in their struggle to uphold human rights
and to put an end to the continual re-
pressive aggression.
Comité de Defensa
de los Derechos Humanos
P.S. Cables and letters should be sent
to the president of the republic, Fernando
Belaande, and to the chairman of the Con-
sejo de Guerra de la II Zona Judicial de
Policia, Lima, Peru. Copies should be sent
to Ricardo Gadea's defense counsel, Dr.
Alfredo Battilana, Av. Nicolas de Piérola
966, oficina 215, Lima, Peru.
U.S.