New Threat to Hugo Blanco

from 'The Militant! Hugo Blanco has once again been placed under threat of execution. The sudden turn in the case of the Peruvian peasant leader - sentenced on September 8th to 25 yezrs in prison, to be served in the island fortress of El Fronton=- came on November 4th when the Lima papers announced the new move by the prosecution. The defence had appealed against the savage sentence passed by a military tribunal in Tacna, The appeal is now before the Supreme Council of Military Justice. This body of military officers was to review the Tacna Court decisionbetween November 7th = 12th and then render its verdict. The date for this wos not announced. The prosecution answered the legal moves of the defence by demanding that the appeals body sentence Hugo Blemco to death, alleging that he was guilty of “prem editated murder". In the trial at Tacna, where the military police acted as both prosecution and judge, the prosectting attorney did not ask for death but for 25years in prison. A consulting judge at the Tacna trial, Fernandez Hernini, recommended the death penalty, but the court did not follow his advice, probably in view of the widespread support Hugo Blanco was receiving on an international scale. The prosecution hinged its arguments on the fact that three policemen were killed during efforts of the Peruvian military to repress the peasant movement headed by Hugo Blanco. The danger for Hugo Blanco is now even greater than at the opening of the Tacna trial. Under Peru's former military code, an unjust decision by the Supreme Council of Military Justice could be appealed to the “upreme Court. Last year, however, during a rabid McCarthy-type witch-hunt, the p.rliament enacted a new code. This bars sny appeal from the decisions handed down by the Supreme Council. To save Hugo Blanco, an immediate mobilisation of international support is required. Student organisations and sectors of the labour movement in Peru will do what they can on a national scale, but they face a big obstavle in the witchhunt atmosphere still prevailing in the country. In addition, the defence is seriously hampered by lack of funds. The National Executive Committee of the Frente de Izquierda Revolucionario(left Revolutionary Front), the organisation headed by Hugo Blanco, has appealed for demonstrations of solidarity. Declarations protesting the new threat to Hugo Blanco's life and asking that he be guaranteed an immediate amnesty should be cabled to the Consejo Supremo de Justicia, Lima, Peru. Similar cables should be sent to President Belaunde Terry, Lima. Copies of these should be airmailed to Hugo Blanco’ attorney, Dr./lfredo Battilana, Av, Nicola de Pierola, 966; Oficina 215, lima. Similar protests and appeals for an immediate amnesty could be lodged with consulates and embassies of the Peruvian government.