APPEALS CASE TO ARGENTINE SUPREME COURT
-. A serious setback has been suffered in the defense of Hugo Bressano against efforts of the Peruvian government to extradite... him from Argentina for alleged participation in revolutionary everits in-Reru in.1962, Lo ~ Well known in Latin-American radical circles under the ‘pen. name of "Nahuel Moreno," Hugo Bressano is the central figure in the movement formed around the Buenos Aires socialist weekly Palabra Obrera which recently fused with the Frente Revolucionario Indoamericanista Popular to form the Partido Unificado FRIP=Palabra Obrera.
The Peruvian government charges that Bressano transported ~~. guerrilla fighters in the Cuzco region in association with the peasant leader Hugo Blanco.
It also charges him with involvement in a bank hold up in a Lima suburb in 1962 organized by a Peruvian guerrilla movement.
A singular feature in both charges is that the Peruvian authorities have never brought the Peruvian defendants in either of the cases to trial. Hugo Blanco has been held in prison at Arequipa. Those alleged to have committed the bank robbery (Daniel Peyrera and his comrades) have been held in prison at Lima.
In the first round of the attempt to extradite Hugo Bressano, the judge in the lower court denied the Peruvian bid, upholding the defense in their contention that both charges involved political offenses. Article 23 of the 1889 Treaty of Montevideo rules out the extradition of anyone charged with a political crime or anyone charged with being connected with a political crime.
The Peruvian authorities, however, persisted in their efforts to get Hugo Bressano into one of their prisons where he could be held indefinitely without trial, and appealed the court's decision.
The Ca4mara Federal de Apelaciones [federal- appeals court] has just handed down its decision. Instead of upholding the law, it reversed the lower court,
The arguments used were so novel that they were reported at some length in the press. The gist was that the alleged crimes in Peru -= which, it should be stressed, have not even been brought into court -- were not of a political character}
This will no doubt arouse cynical laughter in judicial circles in Peru. It is precisely because of their political character that top ruling circles have avoided having the cases brought to trial.
Hugo . Blanco is immensely popular throughout the Peruvian peasantry. He is an. avowed Trotskyist and a supporter of the Fourth International.’ Js ae :
In ‘the bank case, the--participants tured out to be top-rank students from well-known families who proclaimed the political character of their deed, sending signed. letters to the press which made headlines for days. Sympathy for the defendants was widespread, compelling the newspapers to write searching editorials about the political implications. :It is because of this political sympathy forthe defendants that the authorities have. simply held them in prison since 1962 without bringing them to trial.
What is the source, then, of the pressure to extradite Bressano to Peru? And why would a high court bow to it?
The April 20 issue of Palabra Obrera names Washington and the national oligarchies, stating that they are collaborating in an unholy alliance against all the genuinely revolutionary tendencies in Latin America as in other sectors of the colonial world,
The case has become an important one. If the Peruvian government can get away with it, a new precedent will have been established. On mere accusation, without even the findings of..a.previous trial, it would be possible to "extradite" revolutionists. from their-own -country and then hold them indefinitely ina prison like the one at Arequipa. :
The defense has appealed the decision and Ene. Case now ‘goes to the Supreme Court. The outcome cannot .be predicted. ‘Whichever way it goes, however, the repercussions will be felt in. ‘the. status. of civil liberties in Argentina. yo Lo