PERU ON TRIAL

...by implication, these civilians were supposed to be Aprista leaders...

...taken over by the government, but that they never found any answer ti» Aguila...

...Senator Heysen points out that the archives and record...

...After fiustamente's election in 1945 he tried to hold the various factions of his coalition together, but it was a seemingly hopeless job...

...it represented the hopes and projeets of the long'-suppressed Indian and half-breed population of Peru...

...Senator Heysen points out the basically military character of the revolt of October 3. It was led by Commander Enrique Aguila Pardo and other officers of the Peruvian navy...

...But the government charges that the APRA was behind the uprising, that it organized and stimulated it...

...A revolt occurred on October 3, 19411, and was put down by government troops...

...The persecution of such liberal leaders as Senator Heysen and the leader of the People's Party, Victor Raul Haya do la Torre, illustrates Odria's attempt to suppress the democratic forces of Peru, and his methods recall those of his teacher, Juan Domingo Peron...

...of the APRA were seized by the gov • eminent, that all of Haya's papers were...

...With it...

...It had been outlawed for many years, and its leader, Haya de la Torre, had spent most of his political life in hiding, but it claimed a large proportion of the Peruvian people...

...The leaders of the People's Party would be charged with the murder in 1947 of Grana and with the revolt in 1948 at Callao...

...Certain leftist elements were undoubtedly connected with the movement, but the leaders of the APRA and their newspaper La Tribuna immediately denied any connection with the uprising...

...one of the only truly free and popular elections in the turbulent history of his nation...

...1948...

...and visited South America on a State Department Research Fellowship in 1946 and on a Princeton University Faculty Grant in 1948...

...In Peru, former Senator Luis E. Heysen...

...The new government's first task was to demolish its only real source of opposition, the APRA...

...By the middle of 1948 it had become apparent to political observers in Peru that the administration of President Bustamente y Rivero was in a very precarious situation...

...In the latter year he alio edited A Sarmienln Antliulogu...

...It did not have to worry much about the Communists: they were not strong...

...Like Peron, he depends primarily on .rightist and militarist elements and hopes to ape Peron by gaining new support through a demagogic' appeal to the masses...

...Whose government was it that they had recognized...

...President Bustamente did, however, see fit to outlaw the APRA (which had hy now changed its name to the People's Party) and to drive its lenders into hiding...

...And,the political system be•v came increasingly chaotic...

...a biography of the South American leader, Sarmiento...

...it merely indicates that wimp of thosp who took part in the revolt were Aprista members...

...The Communists sought to snipe at both factions...

...The charge brought against the justices •was that they had failed to fulfill their duty when they recognized an illegal, revolutionary, de facto government...

...The APRA never took any active part in it: if it had called its people into the streets it seems probable that the revolt would have succeeded...

...Above all, it does not prov>* that the APRA as a party was involved in the revolt...

...Senator Heysen defends his position before the government charges...

...charged with "intellectual responsibility" for the abortive Calloa revolt of October 3, 1948, is being tried for treason...

...Tlie ret'oliitiouarj/ government that brought Peron himself to power...

...He holds that the letter prove) only that Aguila wrote a letter to Haya...

...But the court that is trying Senator Heysen is not free, nor is the country ruled over by General Odria free...

...Ignoring the obviously ridiculous basis of a trial conducted by a government originating out of a revolt against the very regime against which the defendants are accused of attempting to revolt, he shows that the government has no evidence for its case...

...When the uprising failed...

...They had not come to his aid, he found himself without reinforcements, and was forced to surrender...

...He served as correspondent for Newnweek in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina in 1946-47...

...Like Peron, he is not above an alliance with the Communist totalitarian left when such a combination can benefit both groups...

...In early 1947, the editor of the conservative newspaper, La Prensa, Francisco Grana Garland, was assassinated at a time when he was editorially opposing the Aorista program...

...Senator Heysen holds that both the organization of the movement and the reasons for its failure reveal its military complexion...

...When the Argentine dictator found that the traditionally non-political Supreme Court stood in the way of his personal political plans, he had all of its democratic members impeached...

...The moderates were not in position to cause tronple...

...It is a nation that has come under tho shadow of reaction...

...Meanwhile, the conservative right began to break with Bustamante...

...Ironically, the government that is accusing the Senator of complicity in the attempt to overthrow the constitutional regime of President Jose Luis Bustamente y Rivcro, itself came to power through a revolution against that very government...

...It did not have to worry about Bustamante's moderates A Newsweek correspondent was surprised to find that Odria spoke in conciliatory manner of Bustamante...

...the rift between the APRA and Bustamente was so apparent that when a naval revolt occurred in the port town of Callao It was immediately attributed to the Apristas...

...They must destroy liberalism in order that they may use its slogans for their own demagogic ends...

...His National democratic Front (FDN) had depended upon the support of the moderate con-^ servatives, the liberals, the APRA, and the Communists...

...The last meeting of the conspirators took place on October 1, and they counted at that time upon the support of the rest of the armed forces...

...It is charged that the Aprista flag was flown by some of the revolutionaries...

...but his electoral victory had been predicated on a loose alliance of center and leftist political parties...

...The prosecution's prize exhibit i) a letter from Commander Aguila to Haya de la Torre, in which the naval leader says: "You should be in Peru to wind up the final plans and to giv s orders to all the members of the Party in order that they may recognize you as a leader for the movement and so that there will be no confusion to ob struct our success...

...Like Peron, Odria finds his greatest obstacle to be the liberal and democratic forces of the center and left, .-md has made them the principal targets of his suppressive measures...

...Bustamente had come to power in...

...but does not prove that Haya received it...

...Only the APRA had to be dealt with, and the solution was obvious...

...It has returned to the militarism and personalisin so native to the Hispanic world...

...In spite of Commander Aguila's assertion, 'I am absolutely responsible for the situation," the Odria regime has held many Apristas in jail for over a year and will sentence Senator Heysen to six years in the penitentiary If he is cop...

...THE PROSECUTION'S "evidence," and Senator Heyscn's refutations, follow: • ft is charged that civilians were present at the meetings where the revolt was planned...

...and they held that the government was not dealing severely enough with ,it., • * * BY OCTOBER...

...BUT THE FULL implications of the Peruvian farce cannot be understood until we examine the facts of the ease and note the complete lack of prosecuting evidence...

...They must destroy the constitutional legal structure in order to give free reign to their own wills and ambitions...

...The APRA was probably the most important single group in this alliance...

...Heysen does not deny this, hut claims that this does not constitute proof of Aprista complicity...

...These new dictators must destroy democracy and liberalism to survive...

...Allison William* BunkUy, who mat an untimely and accidental death early in February, wn Assistant Professor of Latin American Affairs at Princeton...

...IN A DOCUMENT smuggled out of his jail in Lima...

...vie ted by the military court...

...On October 27, General Manuel Odria revolted in the southern town of Arequipa, and within a few days the entire nation was in his hands...

...but with this group driven underground, it was not long before the military interests moved...

...The Apristas in Peru, with all their shortcomings that becamn so apparent when they were in power, represent democracy and liberalism...

...A moderate middle-of-the-roader, he found himself caught in the crossfire between the radical APRA and the conservatives The APRA with its long history of exile and persecution was used to methods of direct action, and its members were hungry for reforms...

...He has witnesses of his activities,' and feeLs that these are sufficient to clear him in any free court...

...he charged the Communists with the deed...

...But, Senator Heysen contends, not one name is mentioned, not one person identified...

...Haya denied complicity, holding that Grana had been his friend and one of the only pro-APRA members of La Prensa...

...In like manner, Odria is trying a democratic leader on the charge that he tried unsuccessfully to do what President Odria himself did successfully...

...This gave the green light to the rightist-militarist group that had long been admirers of the dictatorship of General Peron in Argentina, and who had long been weary of the middle-ofthe-road administration of Bustamante Until now, the army had been afraid of a strong popular party represented by the Apristas...

...Nor does it prove that Haya answered it...

...The conservatives, on the other hand, were willing to go to all lengths to keep the APRA from1 achieving its goals...

...The cynical tone of the trial of Senator Heysen and the charges still lodged against Haya de la Torre represent an attempt on the part of the dictatorship to destroy that democracy and liberalism...

...The present Peruvian administration of General Manuel Odria is iino of the most important of the new militarist - personalist dictatorships that began to regain power, in a neo-Fascist guise, following the coup of Peron in Argentina...

...In 1947 and 1948, the split between Haya de la Torre and President Bustamente widened, as postwar social and economic problems arose, and the administration did not solve them with thf speed and decision sought by Haya and his followers...

...Senator Heysen has documented proof of his own whereabouts prior to and throughout the revolt...

...The army, the financial oligarchy, and the landowning interests charged that the APRA was a revolutionary organization that threatened the peace and prosperity of the nation...

...Commander Aguila Pardo himself attributed it to "havinfe been deceived by the other persons of the armed forces who were involved...

...These are the charges that have kept the Apristas underground and in jail for the past year and one half, and the sedition charge is the basis for the trial of Senator Heysen...

...20th century fascist trappings, this new Latin America totalitarianism represents a true threat to the democratic solidarity of the hemisphere...

...The APRA was immediately blamed for the act of violence...

...However, neither Heysen, nor Haya de la Torre, nor their party (which was then called the APRA), have ever been shown to have been implicated in the movement or in the plot behind the movement...