PERUVIAN POLICE SEEK TO TRANSFER HECTOR BEJAR TO TORTURE CELL
[The following letter, written by Hector Bejar in one of Lima's jails (the Carceleta de la Prefectura), last December 21, has been translated from the January issue of Solidarité Pérou.]
*x* * *
To the Colonel Presiding Judge of the Military Tribunal of the Army Second Judicial District
Colonel:
The recent statements by the chief of the PIP [Policia de Investigaciones del Peri], Javier Campos Montoya, which have been published in the Lima press and not denied, accuse me of having had a socalled part in the attack on a bank branch.
It is ridiculous to suppose that a prisoner like myself, who has lived for a year in absolute isolation from other prisoners, whose visitors are meticulously searched, checked and photographed by PIP agents and the Republican Guard, whose conversations with his friends and relatives are attentively listened to by an underofficer, a sergeant, a corporal and two guards, and whose wife and relatives are under constant surveillance,
could direct an assault on a bank from
his cell.
This grotesque accusation would be
unworthy of notice if it did not reveal a
sinister intent. It is obviously a maneu-
ver to shift me out of the jurisdiction
of the courts and again put me at the dis-
posal of the police so that they can in-
flict the reprisals which I was spared by
the timely resort to legal measures and
mobilization of public opinion here and
abroad when I was arrested by the PIP two
years ago.
The precedents set by such maneu-
vers less than a month ago against other
prisoners do not augur well. Edwin Garcia
Miranda, Luis Zapata Bodero, Enrique Amaya
Guintana and Carlos Valderrama are dead in
the dungeons of the PIP and the army se-
cret services and these bloody deeds have
yet to be explained and punished.
Through this open letter, I loudly
and openly deny the accusations hurled by
Campos Montoya. I demand guarantees for
my person and I hold him responsible for
any reprisals against me or my family.
Respectfully,
Hector Bejar Rivera
KHALIL