She was reviled by many Peruvians who saw her as a meddling, arrogant outsider and a terrorist. In America, her story was often seen as a cautionary tale of a talented young idealist who paid a heavy price for getting involved with militants in a faraway country.Oh, those Americans who had a soft spot for Ms. Berenson, did they think about how we feel when talented young idealists from foreign countries come here and "get involved with militants"?
Berenson was the "daughter of middle-class professors" and elite enough to have atttended MIT.
She was convicted of treason by a panel of hooded military judges. Sentenced to life, she was shipped off to Yanamayo, a prison high in the Andes notorious for having cells that lacked running water and had no window panes to keep out the blasts of cold mountain winds. After the United States put pressure on the Lima government and evidence emerged that she had not been a leader of the radical group, she was given a new trial in a civilian court, where she was convicted of lesser charges and sentenced to 20 years....The 20-year sentence and the 25-year sentence.
She is still regarded with suspicion, if not deep hostility, by many here, who remember a conflict between the government and insurgents that cost tens of thousands of lives. “There is a majority view of her as someone who meddled in the country’s affairs, as part of a group that did not have popular support and that committed brutal acts,” said Eduardo Dargent, a political science professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru....
Ms. Berenson’s arrest came during a relentless anti-insurgency campaign led by President Alberto K. Fujimori, who later resisted pleas to grant her a second trial. Mr. Fujimori himself is now in [prison], serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights abuses.
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And she married her lawyer after he knocked her up in prison. Real life is more interesting than fiction.
I never made the link between Lori Berenson and Tupac Shakur before today.
I was taking a college class on Latin American history around the time they occupied the embassy taking hostage. I wrote a paper on this as my "current events topic." Happened a little while after the Berenson trial. For a short while, I was a bit of an expert on the issues and people. Fujimori was an interesting character to be sure, a hero of sorts in that response, but then turning out to be just another minor caudillo.
That he got 25 years in prison is good. Corruption is a human rights abuse itself, and would all corrupt politicians get the same. The corruption brought in by Spanish/Portuguese governments has continued been a plague on Latin America.
What Berenson did was dramatic, to be sure, but a very minor involvement in the perpetual back and forth of that area.
Speaking of idealistic young people, anyone else think that the of large, dark SUV plus tactical-looking gear plus the fact that they were caught tooling around near the attack site long after the attack (instead of escaping) plus the fact that the original attack was over so quickly, leaving scores or hundreds of potential targets untouched = the killers were planning to return to the scene and hit the cops from behind.?
renting a house that is found to contain 3,000 sticks of dynamite belonging to the rebel group you came to Peru to join begs a few questions. More come from sketching the Congressional chamber, noting the seats of the proposed hostages. She was doing a recon and got caught...
Funny how terrorism at home changes ones perspective. I think that Irish-Americans from NYC and Boston mainly were funding "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. After 9-11, the flow of money stopped, seeing terrorism first hand and all, and the IRA basically had to sue for peace.
We really do have to stop meddling in Syria though. Can anybody tell my why overthrowing Qadaffy and working to overthrow Assad is different than overthrowing Saddam? Oh that's right, it isn't. Hillary voted to overthrow Saddam "with conviction," her words.
I feel bad whenever a young person lets her idealism lead her into something stupid. But that doesn't mean I don't think consequences should attach.
Yet the authorities said that Ms. Berenson rented and lived in a house in a suburban neighborhood of Lima, where the rebels planned the attack on Congress. And she was arrested after visiting Congress, under the pretext of working as a journalist. At the time of her arrest she was riding a bus with the wife of a rebel leader. When the police raided the house, they found 8,000 rounds of ammunition and 3,000 sticks of dynamite.
And yet she claims she never saw any weapons. She was a terrorist. Hopefully our government will keep a close eye on her. Wouldn't surprise me if she made common cause with certain "radical" groups currently working to bring about perfect peace her on earth.
Note how the narrator carefully slips into Latin American Spanish when he recites Berenson's son's name, Salvador. I mocked this "snob signalling" in a chirbit, voicing my recollection of a British narration of Giotto's work in an Italian church: link (click "play" to hear)
Just another western leftist revolutionary Useful-Idiot giving themselves over to the innate fascist tendencies that afflict all leftists.
But only ALL leftists.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled program of lefties trying so very very hard to identify just what the heck caused that "American citizen" to go off and commit some serious climate-induced workplace violence.
BTW, they should have hanged her.
Peru to join begs a few questions.
Normally I am not a grammar Nazi. I have enough troubles of my own, but I was watching a movie last night and two characters were lit professors at Oxford, father and son, and they were having a discussion and one of them used "beg the question" incorrectly, as you have, in the sense of "provokes" or "raises," and the other one doesn't even respond. I had to laugh out loud. Sorry, as you were.
"Funny how terrorism at home changes ones perspective."
Except that my leftist "friends" always had endless excuses and justifications for domestic terror acts committed by leftists.
And remember the admiring profile of Bill Ayers which was published by the New York Times just before 9/11? Ayers was a Stalinist terrorist, who hoped to establish a Soviet style tyranny in America, and who has no regrets for what he did. And yet "liberals" remain untroubled by this--and, for that matter, by his close association with Barack Obama.
"She was convicted of treason by a panel of hooded military judges."
This doesn't make much sense, unless she became a citizen of Peru. She was pretty clearly aiding rebels/terrorists though.
"I feel bad whenever a young person lets her idealism lead her into something stupid."
I think it's a mistake to speak vaguely of "idealism".
Would we call a Nazi killer an idealist? No, we'd call him a monster.
The same should apply to leftists and Muslims.
The frequency with which such terrorists are described as "idealists" is a sign of the corruption of our political language, which we should resist.
She can probably get a job with Northwestern Law School as some sort of adjunct professor. They have an affinity for those sorts.
She will soon be a full professor at a university near you.
(of course after a 'decent interval')
If she had plotted to bomb abortion clinics, she wouldn't be getting the "young idealist" favorable press treatment.
"In America, her story was often seen as a cautionary tale of a talented young idealist who paid a heavy price for getting involved with militants in a faraway country."
Yeah, Communists are indeed "often seen as...talented young idealist[s]" ... but mostly by other Communists and fellow-travelers.
I wish people like Lori Berenson and her supporters were as skeptical of Marxist rebels as they are of the American military. War has unintended consequences and more often than not there are more negative consequences than positive ones. That's also true of third world Marxist rebellions. I would go so far as to say that war has a better track record than revolution.
"During the nearly five years of her incarceration, much has been written in the United States about Lori Berenson, on how the daughter of liberal, academic parents turned a youthful concern for social justice into a committed passion."
--the far-left Nation magazine, which worked hard on her behalf.
Ah, that "youthful concern" and "committed passion" for "social justice".
A 20 year sentence is something James Joyce might have written.
I prefer Rachel Corrie as a cautionary tale. Though she was a bit flat for my taste.
"mostly by other Communists and fellow-travelers."
Who write for the New York Times.
Wow, 20 long years. Long enough ago that I remember following her case in the pages of The New Republic, which was a magazine still worth reading in those days. And long enough ago that I was a young idealist myself -- but with vastly different ideals.
I was stationed at out Lima embassy when this all happened. We in the embassy had no doubt about her involvement with Tupac Amaru, and most of us thought she had it coming to her when she was captured, tried and sentenced. Yes, conditions were harsh in prison, (and I heard that at first hand from colleagues who made consular visits to her), but conditions were harsh in much of Peru and would have been much harsher if the terrorists she sided with had been able to control the country.
From this distance in time and space it is easy to condemn Fujimori and Montesinos, his Security Chief. But you need to remember he was elected at a time when terrorists were setting off bombs in the capital and the countryside. He did what needed to be done to move the country from anarchy to relative calm. He used harsh methods to fight harsher methods, but voters largely approved.
Berenson was on the wrong side in the wrong country at the wrong time. She paid the price. I suppose she will be glorified on the lecture circuit, but I see her actions in a different light.
Today, she reflects on that moment, saying: “I became a symbol of the period of political violence which is called terrorism here. The public wasn’t willing to see it in any other way.”
Yet she added: “I still believe that following your dreams is not a bad thing. I think you have to be aware of the consequences, and I was aware of the consequences."
Older but not any wiser and certainly doesn't exhibit any remorse. No doubt she will find a job in academia.
I don't condemn the Peruvians for putting her in prison, I condemn them for not executing her on the spot.
Thousands were murdered during the leftwing/communist rein of terror in Peru. A lot of Peruvians lived in fear and many left the country because of the terror bombings and shootings. I know several Peruvians who talked to me about it.
And we all know she'll end up as a College professor or working for some NGO - no doubt supporting Open borders and fighting "racism".
pst314, point taken. But when it comes to the young, their brains are not fully formed. They generally have no wisdom, no perspective, full of passion and no judgment on where to direct it. I don't object to the 20 year sentence, I wouldn't have objected to hanging her.
It's just unfortunate that the same basic condition of youth that causes most of us to do stupid and embarrassing but ultimately harmless things causes some of us to wrap cars around trees, and others of us to run away to Syria and marry a jihadist or help some exotic Peruvian or hippie terrorist store a bomb. Those kids suffer greatly for their stupidity and that's a shame. If she had just gone to Cancun instead of Lima for spring break, 5 years later she'd be living in the suburbs with a husband and two kids instead of rotting in jail.
Thanks for reminding me, I did forget who Berenson was.
When I read the article, I immediately thought of those Weathermen chicks from the 60's, who I utterly despised -- Kathy Boudin and Bernadine Dohrn.
Coddled middle class white chicks who were so leftist, they became terrorists.
And, then they had soft landings as College Professors! Ditto Angela Davis.
I remember her.
“There is a majority view of her as someone who meddled in the country’s affairs, as part of a group that did not have popular support and that committed brutal acts,"
The majority is correct, albeit understated in its opinion. She got off easy.
Will Donald Trump make a good Fujimori for the U.S.?
Sounds like she got the old Rachel Corrie treatment. Except she survived. Idiocy isn't always fatal.
And remember the admiring profile of Bill Ayers which was published by the New York Times just before 9/11? Ayers was a Stalinist terrorist, who hoped to establish a Soviet style tyranny in America, and who has no regrets for what he did. And yet "liberals" remain untroubled by this--and, for that matter, by his close association with Barack Obama.
Hell, they try to play Jim Jones off as a "religious zealot" and not, you know, a Marxist who SF politicians couldn't blow fervently enough in the 1970's. Milk and Moscone being killed within 2 weeks of Jonestown helped keep how deeply they were tied to him quiet.
There is a fine line separating elite and insular.
if she wasn't jewish we wouldn't be hearing any of this.
Isn't it culturally appropriative to go to another country/culture and get into their politics?
Where are the SJWs when we need them?
Did she learn to speak Spanish? Why is that not culturally appropriateive?
John Henry
John said...
Isn't it culturally appropriative to go to another country/culture and get into their politics?
Good point. She violated the Prime Directive.
Actually, I'd forgotten all about her, but I'm glad she served her time.
John
Isn't it culturally appropriative to go to another country/culture and get into their politics?
Exactly. During my times of work and tourism in Latin America, I made a point of staying out of local politics. While I was discreet in expressing my opinions on local politics,I would listen to anyone who wanted to discuss local politics. When I was working in Argentina during the Videla Junta, a number of Peronists came up to me in public to state their political views. Because I didn't dress like an Argentine, who would be wearing monochromatic blue or white shirts and dark dress pants, it was easy to spot me as a foreigner. Because President Carter had denounced the human rights violations of the Videla Junta, it was correctly assumed that I would lend a sympathetic ear.
In general it is not a good idea for a foreigner to express opinions on local politics because foreigners know much less about local politics than the locals do- or to do so only with friends who request your opinion. Some friends informed me about some geopolitical theory of the military that Brazil was trying to take over Antarctica or some such nonsense. They asked me my opinion. I informed them I thought it was nonsense.
One time when I was hitching in Argentina I got a ride with a journalist who was telling me how there was a Jewish plot to take over Patagonia. Yes, the military running the country was crazy enough to spread such rumors- and many believed them. [I worked in the US with an Argentine of the Jewish faith who informed me that on a post-high-school graduation cruise, he met the daughter of a general who expressed a similar Jewish conspiracy opinion.] I just kept my mouth shut. In addition, he was giving me a ride, so I figured that it would be discourteous to disagree.
One problem in discussing politics in a country with a repressive regime is the existence of orejas/informers. On a rig in Guatemala, I found out that rig workers were not willing to discuss politics in groups- the implication was obvious- as out of the group many were willing to give an opinion.
Laurie Berenson is the poster child for exercising discretion. She got involved with a left wing terrorist group at a time when most Peruvians had very negative opinions of left wing terrorist groups, courtesy of their murderous tactics. Granted, her group was minor league compared to Sendero Luminoso.
Laurie Berenson was naive to think that 1) she could save the world, and 2) her blue passport would protect her from harm. She paid a heavy price for that, but at least she didn't pay with her life.
Family friends knew Camilo Torres, the Colombian priest turned dead guerrilla leader.One, on a trip back to Colombia, had a clandestine meeting with Camilo Torres several months before he was killed. Just a chat, but given his activities, it had to be done very carefully.
Politics can be a dangerous business in Latin America. Gringos are advised to steer clear.
I was surprised that there weren't any Althouse commenters, such as Garage or Robert Cook, who would have expressed some sympathy for Laurie Berenson.
She should be in Gitmo when she enters the US.
Tim said "pst314, point taken. But when it comes to the young, their brains are not fully formed. They generally have no wisdom, no perspective, full of passion and no judgment on where to direct it."
I don't think that applies here. I am a year younger than this woman. In 1995, I was a first year law student about to marry the man I'd been dating for 6 years. I'd already spent 3 years post-college working full-time in the buying office of a large department store. At both my job and law school I was surrounded by equally responsible people of the same age. This woman wasn't "youth"; she was just an idiot. Probably still is.
"Youth" can be stupid at 17 and get away with it. At 26, not so much.
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