In any case there is one point on which all the leaders and representatives of the opposition are in agreement -- the shots fired last March 23 in the wild gorges of the Nancahuazu marked the beginning of something that threatens to last for a rather long time and to compel all "shadings" of opinion to take a stand on in relation to the "Bolivian focal center," the most important perhaps of all those that have surged up in the past ten years with varying fortunes south of the Rio Grande.
CUBANS SCORE A RECORD HARVEST
Cuba has announced a smashing success in this year's sugar harvest. On May 8 as the cutting neared completion, total production stood at 5,590,792 metric tons. This is a million tons higher than last year's harvest at the same time.
Las Villas Province produced 25 percent of the nation's total sugar crop. With a harvest of 1,396,175 tons, the province set a 14-year record.
JUAN LECHIN HAILS BOLIVIAN GUERRILLA FRONT
Juan Lechin Oquendo, former vicepresident of Bolivia and a popular figure in the labor movement there, has hailed the appearance of a guerrilla front in his country although he denies having any connection with it.
_Lechin was arbitrarily arrested by Dictator René Barrientos in May 1965, put on a plane and sent to Asuncién. No trial was held. Interior Minister Oscar Quiroga simply announced that LIechin had been exiled because of "present social tension." He told the press that Lechin was connected with "a vast subversive plot of international character planned and financed for several months by internationally known Communist leaders."
No evidence whatsoever was offered to substantiate the charge. Quiroga merely asserted that Lechin was maintaining "a permanent link with Italian Conmunist leader Signor Iuigi Longo" in a scheme to turn Bolivia into "a new focal point for violence and extermination in the Southern Hemisphere." [See World Outlook, May 21, 1965.]
With the outbreak of guerrilla activities in the southeast part of Bolivia last March, it was wondered if Lechin had any connection with the development although in Bolivia he had disting-
HUGO BLANCO GOES
The Uruguayan Committee for the Defense of Human Rights reported May 11 that it had learned from its sources in Lima that Hugo Blanco, at present in the prison hospital, is convalescing from "physical torture inflicted on him" and that as his "only means of self-defense" he has gone on a hunger strike.
As previously reported by World Qutlook [May 5, p. aso), Hugo Blanco was brutally beaten by prison guards early in April. The authorities at the notorious "El Front6n" fortress-prison told the press that the famous revolutionary peasant leader had been taken to the hospital suffering from a "grave lung ailment. :
The Uruguayan Committee for the Defense of Human Rights reports that Hugo Blanco's friends in Lima are appealing for strong public protests in behalf of the victim. They fear that the Peruvian authorities have decided to do away with Hugo Blanco and that public protest is the only way he can be saved from the "slow death" which they appear to have decided to inflict on the prisuished himself for his incapacity to organize any effective resistance to the Barrientos dictatorship.
On May 7 lechin was arrested at Arica while en route from Argentina to Santiago de Chile. He was traveling on a false passport.
He at once asked for the right of political asylum. This was denied by the Frei government but Lechin was nevertheless granted the right to stay 45 days in Santiago.
In a press interview reported by Agence France-Presse May 16, lIechin said, "When I entered Chilean territory, my intention was to reach Bolivia, where I still want to return as soon as possible and by any means available."
In response to questions, Lechin denied rumors that he had met with "heads" of "international Communism" in Europe. He also denied having anything to do with the guerrilla front in Bolivia.
But on the latter topic, he added: "Personally, I admire these men who have taken the only road that now remains open to the Bolivian people to escape oppression.
ON HUNGER STRIKE
oner.
Hugo Blanco was sentenced last September to 25 years in El Frontén because of his Trotskyist political views and the leadership he provided to the peasant masses seeking land and other improvements in their status.
; The sentence was handed down by a military tribunal in an illegal trial held in the remote town of Tacna.
When Hugo Blanco appealed the savage sentence, the prosecution demanded that the Supreme Council of Military Justice apply the death sentence. Under new legislation passed by parliament under witch-hunt conditions, this body has the power to make such a decision without right of appeal and the sentence can be carried out at once.
A worldwide campaign to save Hugo Blanco's life followed. It has received the support of such prominent figures as Jean-Paul Sartre and Bertrand Russell. Hundreds of outstanding intellectuals in many countries have joined in. Labor or-
ganizations have added their voice. Thousands of signatures have been obtained and demonstrations have been staged in many cities in front of Peruvian consulates.
The campaign has proved so embarrassing to the Peruvian government that it now appears reluctant to have the Supreme Council of Military Justice accede to the demand of the prosecution that Hugo Blanco be placed before a firing squad. A decision was scheduled to be handed down in April. It was evidently postponed.
The Peruvian embassy even told Jean-Paul Sartre that Hugo Blanco's life would be spared. The eminent French philosopher reported this to a mass meeting in Paris on April 10.
How little dependence can be placed in the assurances of the Peruvian ambassador to France can be judged from the fact that the dispatch from Lima reporting that Hugo Blanco had been taken to the hospital was dated April 7.
The beating inflicted on Blanco, coupled with the official lie that he was
taken to the hospital because of a "grave
lung ailment" led to the conclusion that
the political representatives of the
Peruvian oligarchy have decided to use
surreptitious means to liquidate Blanco.
Demands should be sent to Presi-
dent Fernando Belatinde Terry to grant an
immediate amnesty to Hugo Blanco. Bela-
ande's address is Lima, Peru.
Similar demands should be sent to
the Supreme Council of Military Justice.
These can be addressed to the president
of this body as follows:
Gen. Néstor Mendoza Rodriguez
Ministerio de Guerra
Departmento Legal
291 Ave. de Arequipa
Lima, Peru.
Copies of the appeals should be
sent to Hugo Blanco's attorney. His ad-
dress is as follows:
Dr. Alfredo Batillano Maggiolo
_ Oficina 215
Avenida Nicola de Pierola 966
Lima, Peru
MINNEAPOLIS SOCIALISTS CABLE BELAUNDE
Minneapolis
The Friday Night Socialist Forum sent the following cable May 14 to President Fernando Belatnde Terry:
"We protest unjust incarceration
and brutal treatment of Hugo Blanco and
his fellow peasant organizers. Elementary
justice demands their immediate and un-
conditional release from prison."
CAMPAIGN STEPPED UP IN ITALY FOR HUGO BLANCO
Rome
The news about a fresh immediate threat to the life of Hugo Blanco touched off a new wave of protest in Italian left circles.
The Italian Communist party organ Unita, which for a long time has ignored the agonizing situation facing the Peruvian revolutionary leader, featured on its front page an appeal from Peruvian residents in Cuba to spare Hugo Blanco's life. Various organizations influenced by the Italian Communist party have, since then, begun mobilizing support.
The well-known Lelio Basso, in
speaking at a national demonstration in
Florence against the U.S. imperialist
intervention in Vietnam, referred to Hugo
Blanco among the outstanding figures who
have given new impetus to the struggle
against imperialism today.
The thousands present at the dem-
onstration responded with an ovation to
the imprisoned revolutionary fighter.
Leaflets appealing for help in
the struggle to save Hugo Blanco and win
his freedom are being distributed in
various cities.
OTTAWA COMMITTEE APPEALS IN BEHALF OF HUGO BLANCO
Upon learning of the beating inflicted on Hugo Blanco by his guards in the El Frontén fortress-prison, the Ottawa Committee to Defend Hugo Blanco at once sent a protest to President Beladnde Terry of Peru.
Among other things, the committee again called attention to the "crime" for which Hugo Blanco was given a 25-year sentence and then threatened with death when he filed an appeal: