DECLARES THAT HUGO BLANCO MUST BE SAVED
By José Valdés _
Santiago, Chile
Various Chilean periodicals have given wide publicity to Hugo Blanco's trial. The magazines Vea and Flash each devoted a number of pages to the heroic life of the peasant leader, with full-page photographs in color bearing the headline, "Trial of the Peruvian Fidel Gastro.
~The daily El Regional de Coquimbo (in the north of Chile) published an extensive
article December 5 signed by Mario Lobos, head of the union of Empleados Particulares [Ordinary Employees] and leader of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria [MIR] in the northern provinces, in which he says: among other things:
"Because he belongs to the Trotskyist tendency, Hugo Blanco is not liked by the sectarians who hold high posts in the leaderships of the revisionist parties. A fighter for the liberation of the people must not die. Hugo Blanco must be saved through a united struggle of all us men and women who believe in a free and socialist America."
El Clarin, the daily newspaper with the biggest circulation, published an article November 30 by Oscar Waiss, in which the MIR leader said:
"Once I heard Clotario Blest speak on heroism. Heroes don't reveal themselves in electoral campaigns but give themselves up entirely in a total holocaust that includes their feelings, flesh and blood. Hence Hugo Blanco is a hero. He is a fighter in the cause of the proletariat; the peasants raised him up as their leader and a broad solidarity campaign must be organized to try to save his life. Solidarity cannot be doled out in bits. The social fighter emerges from a continental reality which he cannot ignore or disguise."
Oscar Waiss criticizes the "dailies of the left that have remained silent or, at the most, made the record with a few words. This is because Hugo Blanco does not belong to the 'faith' of these dailies -- he is a Trotskyist." -
Waiss's criticism, aimed in reality at the sectarian silence of El Siglo, was felt. On December 5. the Communist party daily, in a long article on the editorial ‘page signed by Rodrigo Rojas, felt compelled to come out in favor of the Hugo Blanco solidarity campaign that is developing in Chile. After recounting the story of Hugo Blanco's trial and his valiant attitude in face of the Military Tribunal, El Siglo declared:
"Last Friday [December 2], under the auspices of the Comité Peruano Pro Defensa de los Derechos Humanos [Peruvian Committee for the Defense of Human Rights], the Communists organized a huge meeting in the Plaza San Martin in Lima in defense of Hugo Blanco.
"The struggle for the life of Hugo Blanco," continued the daily newspaper of the Chilean Communist party, "is the task of not only the Peruvian people. It is the obligation of all progressive people in America and the world. The powerful hand of international solidarity must save the guerrilla leader from the claws of the butchers."
SANTIAGO MUNICIPAL WORKERS DEMAND RELEASE OF HUGO BLANCO
Santiago, Chile
The provincial congress of the