Following we document an English translation of an important call of the Brazilian Center of Solidarity with the People (CEBRASPO). It calls all democratic and progressive people to defend the life and health of Prof. Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, the Chairman Gonzalo, and demands the fundamental rights of political prisoners and prisoners of war.
The Brazilian Center of Solidarity with the People (CEBRASPO, Centro Brasileño de Solidaridad con los Pueblos) has come to denounce that the life of Prof. Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, Chairman Gonzalo, prisoner of war of the Peruvian State, is gravely threatened.
Professor Abimael, chairman of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP, Partido Comunista del Perú) from the moment of his detention in 1992, has been incarcerated in total isolation over the course of 29 years in the Naval Prison of Callao in a cell below sea level. He is condemned to perpetual imprisonment by the courts of the Peruvian State through a fraudulent process, based on the invalid penal laws of the fascist constitution of Fujimori [Alberto Fujimori, former president of Peru, -Ed.]. The conditions in which he is detained violate international agreements such as the Geneva Convention and all the general norms that regulate the Fundamental Rights of a Human Being and the rights of prisoners, in this particular case those of political prisoners.
86 years old and afflicted with a series of chronic illnesses, the monopoly press reported that since July 20 he has been admitted in a hospital close to the Maximum Security Prison of the Naval Base of Callao (CEREC, Centro de Reclusión de Máxima Seguridad). Everything suggests that the total disregard for his living conditions in prison was the cause of his deteriorating health, as the newspapers attributed the hospitalization to poorly treated skin cancer, which led to metastasis. This cancer, in the great majority of cases, is treatable early on and easily diagnosable.
The way in which the Peruvian State treats Prof. Abimael is completely different from the treatment it gave to the genocidal Fujimori in 2020, who was pardoned for being of a similar advanced age and for the risk of acquiring COVID-19 in prison. In the case of Abimael Guzmán, the State even refused to put him under house arrest where his health could be adequately cared for. Last year, CEBRASPO supported the request for a precautionary measure presented by his defense lawyers to the Latin American Court of Human Rights, which sadly coincided with the position of the Peruvian State that he was being duly attended to. Current facts show otherwise.
At the time we said: “There is a clear intention that Dr. Guzmán be infected and die in order to try to absolve the Peruvian government of its clear discrimination against political prisoners in Peru. Because even the genocidal Fujimori, handed over by the Chilean government to Peru and sentenced to 25 years in prison (in practice for life due to his advanced age), received a pardon for humanitarian reasons.” The fascist Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000 under a dictatorial regime, was imprisoned for corruption and massacres. He killed 52 political prisoners, many of them defenseless, who were completely unarmed. He promoted massacres against the civilian population and is responsible for the crime of forcibly sterilizing more than 272,000 women and 21,000 men. It is very clear how the Peruvian Courts and Government apply double standards to the issue of the right to life and health.
Professor Abimael is accused of consciousness, in a war that has been fought between a vast majority of the poor and long oppressed masses led by the Communist Party of Peru, on the one hand, and a powerful oligarchy that holds power in the country [on the other]. The violent isolation imposed in prison and the curtailment of the most elementary rights of Professor Abimael Guzmán only demonstrate the State’s fear that his political positions will come to light, since they could be a threat to the old order.
We demand that Prof. Abimael Guzmán have full access to the care necessary for his health and that his rights as a political prisoner and prisoner of war be respected within the framework of international treaties and we call on all democrats and progressives to denounce and position themselves before this clear threat to the life of Prof. Abimael Guzmán Reynoso.
Río de Janeiro, August 15, 2021
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