Lori Berenson a NYC native dropped out of MIT in the 1980s to become a leftist political activist in El Salvador. In her own words:
"I believed that the Salvadorian people's right to express themselves in their own organisations or in the guerrillas was legitimate in that there was no other way to change what for them was unjust,"
In El Salvador, she was the private
secretary to the top rebel leader during
peace negotiations with the
government in
1992. There are rumours that she rented a house in
1995 as a
hide-out for the
Tupac Amaru rebels. She was just 26 years old when she was
sentenced to life for helping to plan a
terrorist attack on Peru's
congress. It's a crime she says she did not commit.
“The charges against me are preposterous and they're obviously false, I am not a terrorist by any means; quite the contrary I do not believe in any act of terrorism."
Despite the
conviction Benson still sees a
need for change in both
Peru and
El Salvador.
"I believe in human beings, I believe in the rights of justice. I believe that everyone has the right to live with dignity."