An Interview with Ramsey Clark.

• Author: Bernstein, Dennis
• Position: Interview

"If we had support from the U.S. government, we could have gotten her out immediately."

An Interview with Ramsey Clark

Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark has represented the underdog and taken on the U.S. national security state time and time again. In addition to campaigning against the U.S. war in Kosovo and the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq, Clark is now representing Lori Berenson. In early November, he visited her in Peru, where she is serving a life sentence under harsh conditions. I caught up with him on November 13 in San Francisco, while he was attending the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia. And I touched base with him again at the end of January after Berenson had ended a two-week hunger strike. What follows are excerpts from those conversations.

Q: What was the Peruvian government's justification for the arrest of Lori Berenson?

Ramsey Clark: Lori was arrested as she rode on a public bus in downtown Lima. She struggled because she thought she was being robbed. Immediately, President Fujimori appeared on national television waving her U.S. passport and saying that she was a terrorist and part of the MRTA, the Tupac Amaru, which is a terrorist organization, according to the government of Peru.

They had no evidence, though they claimed different types. They claimed she was a leader. Now how could she become a leader of a terrorist organization? She had no background, no experience, didn't know the streets or the names. But that was an essential element in the offense: To be guilty of aggravated treason, you have to be a leader, not just a working stiff. They claimed some people were planning to seize the National Congress, take hostages, and demand the release of MRTA prisoners in exchange. They claimed that she had rented a building [for the MRTA]. But she didn't sign the lease. It took me three days arguing with the military before they let me see the lease. The general conceded, "Well, actually she didn't sign it, but she was there when it was signed." I said, "Tell me where the property was and where the landlord was." So he did, and I went out and talked to the landlord, and he said, "There was no woman there when the lease was signed."

The arrest of Lori Berenson gave Fujimori a chance to seem to have the courage to stand up to the United States, and that's good politics throughout Latin America. And it gave the United States a chance to chill any participation...