Peru Allows Lori Berenson To Visit New York

Lori Berenson, who spent 15 years in Peruvian prisons, accused of being an accomplice to terrorism, is being allowed to visit her family in New York for the holidays.

Lori Berenson admits helping Tupac Amaru rent a safe house where authorities seized a cache of weapons after a shootout with the rebels. She insists she didn’t know guns were stored there and says she never joined the group.

In 1996, a military court of hooded judges convicted Berenson of treason and sentenced her to life in prison. After U.S. pressure, she was retried by a civilian court.

Berenson was accused of being a part of a group called Tupac Amaru, a minor player in Peru’s turbulent past.

The group most famously raided the Japanese embassy in Peru in 1996 during a party and held 72 hostages for more than four months. A government raid killed all the rebel hostage takers.

Berenson was arrested leaving Peru’s Congress and accused of helping plan its armed takeover, which never happened.

She was initially unrepentant, but harsh prison life softened her. She was praised as a model prisoner in the report that supported her parole.

Some Peruvians still consider her a terrorist. She had been insulted in the street, and news media have repeatedly hounded and mobbed her.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.