Associated Press Writer
“CALLAO, Peru -- An anti-terrorism court on Monday started the retrial
of Abimael Guzman, the imprisoned Shining Path leader whose messianic
communist vision inspired a rebellion that left almost 70,000 people
dead.
"Our expectations are very limited," Guzman's lawyer, Manuel Fajardo,
told The Associated Press, as he entered a makeshift courtroom in the
maximum security naval base prison in Lima's port of Callao, where the
70-year-old former philosophy professor has been held since April 1993.
A secret military tribunal sentenced Guzman, known to his followers as
President Gonzalo, to life in prison soon after his capture in 1992,
but Peru's top court ruled the trial unconstitutional two years ago.
A retrial last year ended in a chaotic mistrial after Guzman and his
supporters chanted communist slogans and two of three judges stepped
down.
Court officials were standing firm Monday behind a ban on cameras and
tape recorders in the courtroom to deny Guzman another opportunity to
turn the proceedings into Maoist political theater.
Reporters were allowed to enter only with pens and pads -- no cameras,
recorders or phones allowed. About two hours into the proceedings,
court officials apparently relented on prohibiting journalists from
exiting the courtroom to offer periodic reports as the day progressed.”
Chairman Gonzalo on Trial in Peru
by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru
“News broke on November 5 of the dramatic opening and sudden postponement of the trial of Chairman Gonzalo and the 17 other accused leaders, members and supporters. According to initial reports, including photos and video, Chairman Gonzalo and other defendants stood up in the courtroom in front of the press and the cameras with their fists in the air, chanting "Long Live the PCP" and "Glory to Marxism, Leninism, Maoism." The courtroom was thrown into chaos. The judge immediately evicted the news media and ordered the trial postponed for a week. The Peruvian authorities vowed to continue with the trial but said they will take firm measures to prevent any further disruptions of their legal proceedings. This was the first time that Chairman Gonzalo has been allowed to appear in any way before the public and the media in the 12 years since he was convicted and locked away at Callao Naval Base in 1992.”
Comments:
The chances of these trials being fair are somewhere between slim and none. They are mostly show trials to try and bring legitimacy to the new Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. They are mostly for public consumption to try and discredit the “people’s war” waged in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s. While this movement has not recovered from the setback of having its leadership captured, it is not completely gone either. The organization continues to try and rebuild itself.
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