[The following interview with the Peruvian Trotskyist leader Hugo Blanco was obtained by Mats Holmberg on Blanco's return to Sweden. Holmberg is one of the Latin American correspondents for Dagens Nyheter, the most prestigious of the Swedish dailies, and is known particularly for his reports from the junta's Chile. This interview was published in the June 10 issue of Dagens Nyheter. The translation is by Intercontinental Press/Inprecor.]
He was not at all downcast.
Hugo Blanco gave the victory sign at Arlanda airport [outside Stockholm]. This was the third time he had come to Sweden as a refugee. But it was no dreary returning.
"I have never felt so optimistic before about the future," he said. "I have never seen the kind of fighting spirit that prevails in Peru now. I think that the government has underestimated the people."
Just two months ago, the Peruvian peasant leader Hugo Blanco left Sweden to take part in the elections in his country.
He was skeptical about the elections when he left. His misgivings were confirmed in a dramatic way. A few weeks after his return to his homeland, Hugo Blanco was arrested and twelve other opposition political leaders were held in prison for a while and then sent off to Argentina.
"I think we would all have been murdered, if they had managed to keep the news about our deportation quiet," he said on Friday [June 9]. "We were taken to a military base just on the other side of the Argentine border with Bolivia. But we put up a fight in the airport in Lima. As a result of the scandal that was raised, the news got out."
Now Hugo Blanco was sitting among friends and journalists at Arlanda. He laughed bitingly about the Peruvian government's announcement on Thursday [June 8] that the state of emergency would be lifted before the June 18 elections.
"You can't hold democratic elections if you jail and deport the opposition," he said. "Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of supporters of the left have been arrested. The elections are a farce."
He said that he was worried about the eight Peruvians from the deported group who are still in the hands of the Argentine police.
"There is a danger that they will disappear if the spotlight of international public opinion is not kept on them," he said.
"They all want to get out of Argentina, but so far no country has granted them an entry permit."
As for himself, Hugo Blanco wants to return to Peru as soon as possible.
"I am glad I got a chance to experience the sort of mood that prevails in Peru," he said. "And I think that I am going to get the opportunity to go back-not because the government wants it but because the people will make it possible.
"I have never been more certain of victory."