Sketches of Hugo Blanco's Trial at Tacna

Sketches based on snapshots taken in the courtroom at Hugo Blanco's trial in Tacna at the beginning of September. Top left: Police try to restrain Hugo Blanco as he shouts, "Tierra o muerte!" [Land or death]. Top right: Part of the crowd that packed into the courtroom. Within a few sessions they were echoing Hugo Blanco's shout of "Tierra o muerte!" Some brought food for the prisoners and one donated his leather jacket to Hugo Blanco, who then wore it until the trial ended. Second row: the military judges who handed down the sentences. Third row: A side view of Hugo Blanco as he listens to the proceedings. Center right: Under questioning by his judges, Hugo Blanco turns the tables and accuses them of their guilt as representatives of Peru's ruling oligarchy. Bottom left: Hugo Blanco listening to his sentence -- twenty-five years, to be served in the notorious fortress-prison El Frontén. When Hugo Blanco appealed this Savage sentence, the prosecution countered by asking for the death penalty. Bottom right: Pedro Candela, comrade of Hugo Blanco, who was sentenced in the same trial to twenty-two years in El Frontén. When Candela joined Hugo Blanco in appealing to the Supreme Council of Military Justice, the prosecution demanded that he, too, be given a still heavier sentence.