US woman released from Peru after 20 years

December 3rd, 2015 (VOA) U.S. citizen Lori Berenson, convicted in Peru of helping Marxist insurgents, finally left Peru for good early Thursday after 20 years of detention and parole in the South American nation.

Berenson and her six-year-old son boarded a plane bound for the U.S. shortly after midnight, having walked through the airport surrounded by police. Berenson’s activist past and fierce defense of the Tupac Amaru rebels in her 1996 trial have made her an unpopular figure in Peru, where she has been labeled a terrorist.

Berenson traveled to Peru in 1994 to work as a social activist in the nation then grappling with internal conflict.

The former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student was arrested in 1995 and initially sentenced to life in prison for helping the Tupac Amaru leftist rebel group plan an armed takeover of Congress.  The attack never took place.

Berenson’s sentence was overturned in 2000 and she was retried in a civilian court. She was sentenced to 20 years, the final five of which she was allowed to serve on parole in Peru. She was allowed to visit the United States in 2011 but returned to Peru to finish her sentence.

Berenson has publicly apologized for collaborating with the rebel group, and said she was not a militant or a leader and did not participate in any violent acts.

In 2003, Berenson married her lawyer, Anibal Apari, who spent 12-and-a-half years in prison for involvement with the rebels. Apari is the father of Berenson’s son, but the two are now divorced.