The Long Arm Of Fujimori In Hamburg; Press Conference Follows Raid On The Home Of MRTA European Spokesperson.

On Tuesday, May 5, 1998, police and federal authorities in Germany raided the home of Isaac Velazco and his wife Norma in Hamburg. Velazco is the European spokesperson for the Peruvian Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). He has lived as a political refugee in Hamburg since 1994 and has not been back to Peru since. According to his lawyers, German officials are trying to build a case against him for aiding in a kidnapping. Velazco is alleged to have taken part in the occupation by MRTA guerrillas of the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in December 1996. The search of Velazco's home in Hamburg lasted for nine hours. Police copied the hard drive of Velazco's computer and confiscated several items. Velazco held a press conference the day after the raid on his home to comment about the allegations. He said the police action did not come as a surprise to him. Since April 22nd of this year, MRTA prisoners in Peruvian high security prisons have been on hungerstrike. He said he fears that "the government of President Alberto Fujimori is planning to solve the prisoner problem by means of murder". Since December of last year, there have been rumors of a planned violent liberation of the MRTA prisoners from the maximum security facility in Yanamayo. But Tupac Amaru prisoners have been transferred there against their will for the past several months. Velazco said: "It seems that a massacre is being planned." The European spokesperson for the MRTA said that he sees it as his task to inform the public opinion about the conditions in Peru's prisons. Velazco said that by confiscating his work, police were trying to prevent him from doing this. Velazco said: "There are no MRTA fighters living abroad. My only task is to carry out publicity work." In September of last year, Hamburg's Interior Ministry, at the urging of the Peruvian government, banned Velazco from engaging in political activity in Germany, but a court appeal has until now prevented this ban from going into effect yet.

(Translated from 'junge Welt' - May 7, 1998)

Con las Masas y las Armas, Patria o Muerte ... VENCEREMOS!

MRTA Solidarity Page - http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm