which link was broken, brothers?
Quote:
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there are fears the rebel leader could appeal against any eventual guilty verdict to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the grounds that Peru's definition of terrorism is flawed, in the hope of winning his liberty.
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I am mystified by this.
This is a country, like many others in Latin America, where the word
desaparecido evolved to describe a phenomenon that defined political reality beginning in the latter half of the last century. Peru, like Guatemala, like Salvador, like Argentina, like Chile, has its share of people who simply vanished.
I hate to advocate monstrous measures, as I am among those who believe that doing so is infectious, and dooms you. But these people are at war, and so am I.
I do not get it. No truer enemy of the Peruvian state ever existed. You can argue that Guzman is a patriot. That, I can accept. Not that it matters. That accolade is ultimately for history to bestow, and Peru is not my country. But there is no doubt that Guzman is an enemy of the state. Guzman is an enemy of things as they are, of the order that prevails, and that makes him my enemy.
I suppose that I can understand that Peruvians feel shamed by the perceived excesses of the years following the
autogolpe, they feel sullied by Montesinos, and Fuji, and apparently they feel a need for a "do over," and want to legitimize things that they believe went awry. But the imprisonment of Guzman is not one of those things.
There is simply no way that Peru can let this man go free. It is akin to putting Lenin on a closed train. I do not care how old that Guzman is. Until he is senile, and slobbering, and ultimately embalmed wearing lipstick and blush, he is dangerous.
I used to collect video of these guys....Peruvian media used to show captured tapes of them, pulled out of their safe houses....the glimpses of internal party life were revealing. Guzman was deified.
"Feliciano,"
aka Oscar Ramirez Durand, was the Military Secretary of the Party...he evaded capture the longest...and I believe was ultimately run to ground in the Upper Huallaga, where Sendero has long had a presence.
If the court follows its own rules, this will be the last that we hear of this trial. No more tapes, no more film. Why the Peruvian government even engages in this foregone conclusion of a trial is a mystery to me.