PERU
Hugo Blanco
• In Switzerland, our comrades contacted the Socialist Party, whose Geneva section demanded a meeting with the Peruvian
Embassy.
THE INTERNATIONAL campaign in solidarity with Hugo Blanco and other arrested leaders of the Peruvian Peasant Confederation (CCP) has achieved its first aim (see IV 157). Following the release of the others, Blanco was finally set free on Friday, February 24 and was able to return to Lima the following day to continue his work as organizational secretary of the CCP. A FTER HIS arrest in Pucalpa on
February 9 following the peasant strike movement in the region, Hugo Blanco was taken to Lima. On February 21, the Lima prosecutor had ordered his release. However, the police ignored this order and attempted to forcibly take Blanco back to Pucalpa. A first attempt was prevented by demonstrators at Lima airport, who forcibly stopped the aircraft from taking off. But early in the morning of February 22, Blanco was returned to Pucalpa.
Blanco appeared in court in Pucalpa on February 24. His lawyer demanded the dropping of all charges and his release, arguing that there was no proof whatsoever substantiating the charges of "armed rebellion". The prosecutor again ordered Blanco's release, putting no restrictions on his freedom of movement.
This success is the result of an active international campaign of protests and pressure on the Peruvian government:
• Amnesty International made the Blan28 co case an urgent international action, thus aiding solidarity actions in many countries. International Viewpoint #158 • March 6, 1989 released
•
In Sweden, where Blanco's wife and children live, a daily protest was organized outside the embassy, which included the classmates of Hugo
Blanco's two younger children.
Support was also mobilized in the trade-union movement, which led to the president of the trade-union federation sending a telegram of protest. On
February 18 a large meeting brought together representatives of the Communist
Party, social-democratic MPs, writers and academics supporting Blanco's release.
• In Belgium, our comrades demanded that the European Parliament take up the case.
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• In Germany, the Greens also approached the European Parliament, and a number of rallies were planned.
• In Spain, our comrades in the LCR immediately informed the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the General Workers' Confederation and the Workers' Commissions. A public meeting was held on February 13 in Madrid.
• In France, a delegation led by the International Federation for Human Rights, the Human Rights League and Alain Krivine from the LCR went to the Peruvian Embassy on February 13. The LCR organized an embassy picket and a special solidarity poster was flyposted.
• In Latin America and the United States many protest actions have taken place. The Peruvian embassy in Washington told callers that their telephone was ringing non-stop - they even had a call from Senator Edward Kennedy!
Once again an international campaign has helped our comrade Hugo Blanco escape from the clutches of the military. Peruvian peasants will continue to struggle against their conditions of poverty, repression and exploitation, and Hugo Blanco and his comrades in the CCP will continue their work with them. The danger of future repression demands ongoing vigilance. * and
Number 10: Marxism andLiberation Theology, by Michael Löwy The emergence of revolutionary Christianity and liberation theology in Latin
America opens a new chapter and poses exciting new questions which cannot be answered without a renewal of the Marxist analysis of religion. Michael Löwy attempts to begin the process in this notebook which reviews traditional and recent Marxist views on the subject and focuses on the experiences of Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Appendix by Frei Betto.
40 pages. £2, $3.50, 20 FF.
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