Peru’s Cabinet soon considers whether to expel paroled New Yorker convicted of aiding rebels

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Peru’s Cabinet to take up Lori Berenson case

LIMA, Peru — Peruvian Cabinet ministers will discuss whether to deport a paroled New Yorker who served 15 years in prison for aiding leftist rebels.

Cabinet chief Javier Velasquez says ministers will discuss whether to commute the sentence of Lori Berenson at the next regular Cabinet meeting Wednesday. If the sentence is commuted, Berenson will then be expelled.

Under terms of her parole, Berenson must stay in Peru until her sentence ends, which without a commutation would be November 2015.

Berenson’s release from prison Thursday revived passions about the 40-year-old’s prior links to a rebel group that bombed banks and kidnapped and killed civilians during the 1980s and ’90s.

President Alan Garcia does not intend to discuss Berenson’s case when he meets in Washington next week with President Barack Obama, Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia said Friday.

“It’s a judicial matter. … ,” Garcia said. “There is nothing to negotiate with the United States.”

Some residents of the upscale Lima neighborhood where Berenson is staying consider her a terrorist and are unhappy she is there.

Berenson and her 1-year-old son, Salvador, are staying with her parents in an apartment.