It would be easier to accept this loss for Lori, and our loss of her for the next 11 years, if we knew that the Court acted responsibly and with integrity, but we are frustrated because we know the Court's preliminary position as of November 10th was to rule for Lori's freedom. In the end, Lori was denied justice and she will remain in jail for crimes we know she did not commit.

After independently analyzing the hysterical situation in his own country leading up to the Inter-American Court's surprising decision, on December 17th the judicial expert and former Peruvian Prime Minister Javier Valle-Riestra wrote an article in a Peruvian magazine stating that the Inter-American Court disappointingly capitulated to the political pressure applied by the Peruvian government and thereby committed a grave injustice to Lori Berenson. He said, "It was a political sentence to accommodate the Peruvian extreme right and reaction which threatened to withdraw Peru from the Inter-American Court's contentious jurisdiction. This ruling had the strategic virtue of keeping Peru within the hard center of the OAS system, and for this I am happy. Nevertheless, it was also damaging because it contains a grave injustice - it endorsed the the 20-year sentence of imprisonment for the U.S. citizen Lori Berenson."

Dr. Valle Riestra sent a copy of his article to Ramsey Clark. When Ramsey wrote back, thanking him, Dr. Valle Riestra sent a Christmas note to Clark, saying that, "The Inter-American Court on Human Rights has betrayed the Americas. The Berenson case, by condemning an idealist who never acted [to commit the crime] to 20 years of prison, is a crime against human rights and has discredited this institution."

That Dr. Valle Riestra's analysis is right on target can be attested by an unexpected meeting between Lori's husband Anibal and the Foreign Minister Rodriquez Cuadros at a Lima radio station on Saturday December 4th. As Anibal was leaving the official was entering. He reached out, shook Anibal's hand, and said, "Anibal, I am so sorry for Lori and for you - please don't take this personally, we were pressured by the rightwing to do this." Please know that we had two meetings with Rodriquez Cuadros during the time of Lori's civilian trial - he was the Peruvian Ambassador to the OAS then. He had met Lori in El Salvador in the early nineties when he was an international representative to the El Salvador truth commission and Lori had dealings with that body when working for the FMLN leadership. He remembered Lori then and told us she was not a terrorist. He was thought to be a champion of human rights - until he too capitulated to political events.

Although the Peruvian government denied applying pressure on the Inter-American Court and Rodriquez Cuadros declared the decision was "fair and impartial," this is blatantly false. Even the Associated Press speculated that had the Inter-American Court ruled against Peru the country would have "convulsed." There was widespread fear in Peru that had the Inter-American Court ruled for Lori's freedom, as was expected, other political prisoners considered as real dangers to society might find legal loopholes to obtain their freedom. The easiest remedy for the Inter-American Court was to reverse its own 12-year position and now say the laws under which Lori was twice tried provided her due process.

We have thoroughly documented the events of November 2004 and have submitted an article to NACLA detailing what transpired. Hopefully it will be published because the truth must be known.

In that same spirit, there are other disappointments that must be noted because all of you are activists and must learn the lessons, both good and bad, from a campaign such as ours. Following the announcement of the Inter-American Court decision:

1. There was very little U.S. press attention and even strong supporters from the progressive media totally ignored the ramifications.

2. No member of the U.S. Congress communicated with us.

3.The U.S. Ambassador to Peru ignored us.

4.We spoke with our State Department contact, the Chief of Staff to Secretary Powell, on Friday morning December 3rd and asked for his help in convincing the Peruvian government to show good will in the spirit of the holiday season and release Lori out of a position of strength--Peru had just won this unexpected victory the day before. He said he would bring this to the attention of Secretary Powell. We never spoke to him again--we left two voice messages and two actual messages with his secretary--to which he did not respond.

On the morning of December 2nd, Lori, with grace and dignity acknowledged this surprising defeat - saying this is a great injustice but we have all done all that we could and urged us to move on with our lives. Lori and Anibal provided the press with a message the next day that was printed in Spanish on IndyMedia Peru on December 27th and in Argenpress (www.argenpress.info) on December 29th. Their mutual courage and dignity is incredible and worthy of emulation by all.

These events all led us to the following decisions which are necessary for us to preserve our health and continue to function in an unjust world, where our suffering pales to the incomprehensible suffering that occurred to so many human beings in Asia over the past week.

Given that we can expect no help from any part of the U.S. government at least over the next four years, we have decided to consolidate our resources and relocate any future efforts on Lori's behalf to New York. Our mailing address will be:

Committee to Free Lori Berenson,
PO Box 701, New York, NY 10159
and our telephone number will be 212 689 9572.

We would like to maintain Ken's extraordinary (and Webbie winning) Website and send out Updates at least monthly to keep Lori's situation alive. She hopes to write regularly. We also hope some scholar will step forward and research and write a true account of Lori Berenson to counter the fact that the Inter-American Court has allowed her name to be smeared. Given the lack of media attention to the decision a month ago, even that is not promising.

As many of you know, it has been a full year since Marie Manrique moved to Peru and opened an NGO called ALAS which focuses on helping Peruvian political prisoners and their families. Anibal, who is finishing law school, is working with Marie at ALAS and also is monitoring the ever-changing Peruvian justice system as it may affect Lori. We will assist in whatever ways we can in their efforts.

In a final note of optimism, let us reflect on our achievements based on the Court's rulings. Incomprehensibly, given the Court ratified Lori's trial (and the old Fujimori laws) as complying with international standards of due process, the Court unanimously ruled that Peru must bring its anti-terrorism laws into compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights. Also, Lori's case brought recognition to the termination of the secret military trials for civilians and the end of all hooded trials in Peru. In addition, Lori's case caused the Court to order that the notorious Yanamayo Prison be remodeled and made habitable within one year or closed down, and that any prisoner who suffers from altitude or climate related medical conditions be transferred elsewhere immediately. We also must remember that our collective efforts resulted in tremendous support from the U.S. Congress which eventually led to Lori having a second trial. And these efforts also brought international recognition to the draconian laws promulgated by Fujimori and helped encourage the interim Paniagua administration to institute major positive changes in the prison system beginning December 2000 - changes that unfortunately are now being reversed by the Toledo administration. And finally, Lori's case put the country of Peru on the map for many Americans who never before paid attention to this part of the world. Hopefully, in the long run, this will be a positive affect for Peru and its people in a country that Lori continues to love, despite the harm the collective politicians and media there have caused her.

We want you all to know how very grateful we are for all of Laura Furst's efforts as National Organizer these past three years--she is a terrific person and we wish her well as she continues to work to better human rights. Unfortunately, with our "downsizing" we can no longer afford to maintain a separate office in Washington.

Again, many, many thanks to each of you--we know we are better human beings because of our relationship with so many of you. Thank you for your friendship and support that have helped sustain us over these nine years of difficult times. Despite the massive problems this world faces, we will never lose the hope that as long as people like Lori and like you stand up to injustice, the children of our planet will have a better tomorrow.

-- For more on Berenson's case visit FreeLori.org. Messages to Lori can be sent to: berenson (at) freelori.org