Un ‘service de presse ouvrier
Vol. 4, No. 27 September 16, 1966
TRIAL OPENS FOR HUGO BLANCO
As feared by the defense, the Peruvian government opened the trial for Hugo Blanco Galdés, the well-known Trotskyist peasant leader, without adequate notice; and selected a court in Tacna, a small town, where even routine press coverage is difficult.
August 29 was set as the opening day for the trial. But the three Lima defense attorneys, Dr. Alfredo Batillano Maggiolo, Doctora Laura Caller Ibérica and Marcial Chalco Reyes, were not registered in Tacna. Proceedings were held up while provisions were made to register the three attorneys locally.
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Twenty-eight defendants were brought into court August 30. (Two days later, the number was increased to 29.) Nine others were named in the indictment but have not been apprehended.
The two leading figures in the case are Hugo Blanco, who is being defended by Dr. Batillano; and Pedro Candela Santillana, who is being defended by Dra. Caller. The latter attorney, together with Marcial Chalco, is also defending the 27 other defendants. Their names were listed by the press as follows:
Aniceto Munoz Pinares
Tiburcio Bolanos Davalos
Fortunato Vargas Guzman
José Zuniga Letona
Vicente Ortiz Quispe
Fidel Orué Ortiz
Bernardino Zarate Ramirez
Crisélogo Gordillo Almandoz -
Moisés Paz Huacao
Emiliano semordes Ojeda
Francisco Cayo Palomino
Nemesio Bocangel Zavala
Juan Pando Paucar
Basilio Alvarez
José Pereyra Paucar
Iuis Aguilar Villacorta
Gerardo Carpio Molina
Humberto Caraza Moscoso
Leonidas Carpio Jordan —
Marcelino Rosa
Pascual Zarate Ramirez
Iucio Bengolea Torres
Fortunato Torres Paniagua :”
Andrés Gonzalez Tejada
--- Antonio Huaccoc Leén
Gregorio Surco Quispe
Bernardino Quispe Lavilla
The prosecuting attorney, Lt. Col. Oswaldo Paulinich, demanded
s in prison for Hugo Blanco, 22 years for Pedro Candela and
to 20 years for the. others.
The demand was not without sinister implications. The press had freely predicted in advance that the prosecution would demand 25 years for Hugo Blanco but that the judges would hand down the death sentence. The press prediction proved to be accurate as to the opening moves of the prosecution, giving rise to. forebodings that the trial will end with martyrdom for Hugo Blanco.
Dr. Batillana objected to the trial being held in Tacna because it "lacked the necessary guarantees" for a fair hearing. He also charged that the defendants were brought to Tacna hastily
hout previous notice.
The defense also filed objections over a series of legal "omissions and errors" in the case. They argued for dismissal of © the case; and, when this was denied, demanded its postponement. This was denied inasmuch as the Military Code does not provide for postponements.
In addition to all the other difficulties facing the defense, the government placed the case under the Code of Military Justice although the alleged crimes actually come under civil law.
The defense also charged that the trial was unfair, since eighty percent of the defendants speak only Quechua, yet the trial is being conducted in Spanish. When the court read the charges to
the defendants in Spanish, Dra. Laura Caller objected. She pointed out that the Military Code provides in such instances for an interpreter.
The head of the military tribunal, Col. Roberto Acosta, said that after the charges were read in Spanish a copy translated into Quechua would be handed to the defendants.
When Hugo Blanco was brought into the small crowded courtroom at 8:30 a.m., he shouted the slogans of the peasants whom he had led in the valley of La. Sonvencién in the heroic struggles of 1961 and 1962.
The presiding judge became very angry and ordered silence
on penalty of being sent out.
Hugo Blanco remained seated until 12:30 p.m. when the hearing was suspended. He then rose to shout again, "Tierra o Muerte!" 9. [Land or Death.] Pedro Candela and the other 26 loudly echoed the. slogan before the appreciative spectators who had jammed into the courtroom. —
Hugo Blanco was dressed in a simple black leather jacket. Apparently he let his beard grow during the more than three years | he was held incomunicado in prison in Arequipa. -
: The charges against Hugo Blanco include involvement in the death of three members of the armed forces, killed during the struggles initiated by the government to suppress the peasant movement. He is charged in addition with "treason," dissemination of "red literature" and involvement in the training of. peasants in the use of arms.
The highly political nature of the trial is revealed by the mere fact that the second day of the hearings (August 31) was spent largely with the prosecution reading extracts from the literature distributed to the peasants in La Convencién. The main point of the prosecution was that this "red literature" openly "incited" the land-hungry peasants to "rebellion."
- On September 1, the number of defendants was increased to 29 when ‘the ‘peasant Basilio Alvarez, who had been sick, was brought in. The day was spent with the prosecution reading into the record depositions of witnesses concerning guerrilla incidents in which Hugo Blanco was allegedly involved. The session of September 2 was spent in a similar way.
On September 3, the prosecution's reading of the depositions of the defendants began. Hugo Blanco spent six hours and a half listening to the prosecution's version of what he had allegedly said during the investigative process. In the key case of Hernan Briceno Minauro, who was killed in a gun battle, Hugo Blanco described how he had fired in self-defense against the civil guard.
-4.
According to the press, the trial, which is proceeding in drumheead fashion in accordance with the usual procedure of Peruvian courts-martial, might last another six days.
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