The Case of Haya de la Torre
GRANT, FRANCES
The Case of Haya de la Torre Peruvian democrat is spending his fifth year in embassy surrounded by dictator's troops By Frances R.Grant Secretary of the Inter-American Association for...
...Democrats of the Hemisphere know that, far from helping Peru's common man, Odria has merely feathered the nest of the small feudal oligarchy, the Army and the well-satisfied Communists...
...After visiting Russia to witness its experiment, however, he was so shocked by Soviet oppression of the people that he returned to Peru a confirmed enemy of Communism...
...Why is Odria so adamant in his refusal to grant safe conduct to his political opponent...
...3. Odria works with Peru's Communist leader, Senator Juan Luna, who is opposed to giving Haya de la Torre his freedom...
...Not even a doctor or dentist is permitted entry...
...There are three important answers to this question: 1. For twenty-five years, Haya's name has been a rallying point in the struggle to improve the lot of Latin America's underprivileged...
...What is more, this question on the right of political asylum gives the Inter-American Peace Commission an opportunity to prove itself a true organ of Hemisphere solidarity...
...on the other hand, it threw back in the laps of Peru and Colombia the question of safe conduct...
...What role has the United States taken in this threatening situation...
...And the only ones to profit by the rupture will be the Communists, who could use this crack in the Western Hemisphere to set their maggot army to work...
...If the Commission does not meet this challenge, the entire Inter-American system may split...
...Evaristo Sourdis, Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs...
...On the one hand, the Court completely exonerated Haya de la Torre of the unjust criminal accusations made against him by Peru...
...He despoiled Haya de la Torre of a small inheritance from his mother and even seized his one treasure, a library of 4,000 volumes bequeathed to him by democrat Gonzales-Prada...
...Instead, he bought out the block around the Colombian Embassy, dug a circle of trenches, posted machine guns on all the surrounding buildings and assigned 600 of his militia to guard the Embassy day and night...
...It lists a long series of provocations which flagrantly violate every code of international law and every tradition of inter-American courtesy: The Colombian Embassy in Lima is continuously under search and vigilance by Peru's armed forces: all communications are intercepted: all persons entering or leaving the Embassy are rudely questioned and searched by Odria's police: and Embassy automobiles are followed everywhere...
...This is apparent from the petition presented to the Inter-American Peace Commission in Washington on November 18 by Dr...
...Led by Miro-Quesada, they have declared war to the death against Haya de la Torre...
...The Case of Haya de la Torre Peruvian democrat is spending his fifth year in embassy surrounded by dictator's troops By Frances R.Grant Secretary of the Inter-American Association for Democracy This week marks five years since Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, leader of Peru's outlawed majority party, the APRA, fled into the Colombian Embassy seeking asylum from Dictator Odria's military police...
...But the Colombian protest to the Inter-American Peace Commission (consisting of Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Argentina and the United States) finally forces the U.S...
...But Odria refused the request...
...2. Odria is being intimidated by the feudal oligarchs who put him in power...
...This was accompanied by a citation lauding him for "bettering materially the well-being of the people of Peru...
...Apparently, having made a fetish of "non-intervention," it has preferred to stay aloof—even though the U.S...
...The virtual imprisonment of Haya de la Torre has brought the Hemisphere perilously close to an inter-American incident...
...His police admit they arrested 6,000 such prisoners from May to December 1952...
...Today, only Haya and two Colombian diplomats occupy the Embassy...
...The International Court at The Hague has also evaded its responsibility by rendering a decision in this case that no one can fully understand...
...The fact remains, however, that Odria holds thousands of his people as political prisoners, abandoned and sick in foul prisons and torture holes...
...At that time, under the accepted code of international law, Dr...
...did not deem it a violation of "nonintervention" when it recently gave Odria's regime a moral boost by presenting him with its highest military decoration, the Legion of Merit...
...It could aid the cause of Hemisphere peace by convincing Odria that it would be wise to grant safe conduct to his political victim...
...to take a stand in this case...
...Early in his fight for the common man, Haya thought Soviet Communism might be the answer to his people's troubles...
...This is the same Miro-Quesada, publisher of El Comercio, who in the Inter-American Press Association speaks loudly of human rights, but who never protested when Odria seized La Tribuna and other opposition papers...
...Carlos Echeverri Cortes, then Colombia's Ambassador to Peru, asked safe conduct for his political ward to leave Peru...
Vol. 37 • January 1954 • No. 1
