On Thursday, February 23 at 8 p.m. the editorial board of GUERRILLA will present a program of new Latin American poetry in Lower Helen DeRoy Aud. at Wayne State University. The program will include a film on the Venezuelan guerrilla struggle and a lecture on Hugo Blanco, the imprisoned Peruvian peasant leader. The evening will be presented in cooperation with the Committee To Defend Latin American Political Prisoners.
Helma Perry, an Argentine poet and translator and Leandro Katz, a Peruvian poet and translator will read from their work along with the internationally known Oscar Mascotta, author of SEX & BETRAYAL IN ROBERTO ARTL, who is currently visiting the United States on a Guggenheim Grant. The writers will also recount some of their experiences in revolutionary Latin America.
Allen Van Newkirk, poet and editor of GUERRILLA, will read Paul Blackburn’s translations of Javier Heraud’s poetry. Heraud, a young poet/guerrilla, was killed in the early 1960s when he and some companions tried to initiate an insurrection against the military obliarchy of Peru in the famous “Puerto Maldonado” incident.
Jan Garret, a member of the Committee To Defend Latin American Political Prisoners and an expert on revolutionary Latin America will give a presentation on the history and development of the guerrilla and peasant movements in Latin America. He will also make a special appeal for the defense of Hugo Blanco, the heroic Peruvian peasant leader and revolutionary who has been held in prison for over three years.
Blanco now faces a possible death sentence from a military tribunal which controls the power there. During the three years he has been interned, Hugo Blanco has waged many hunger strikes in protest against the inhuman treatment he and his companions have suffered.
Recently, these young idealists were brought to trial and Blanco was sentenced to twenty-five years. However, according to Peruvian law he could still be sentenced to death and executed on almost immediate notice. Consequently his defense is urgent both to his life and to all of us who hope to one day see a democratic Latin America.
Recently Amnesty International, which has consultive status with the United Nations and the Council of Europe, decided to intervene in the case. The American section is headed by such figures as Francis Biddle, Victor Ruether and Roger Baldwin.
Meanwhile, demonstrations have been held in New York, Paris, Canada and Mexico to protest the Peruvian government’s actions against Blanco and his comrades. A French group including Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Prevert, Alain Resnais, Claude Roy, Simone Signoret and others have been active in their defense of Blanco.