Lori Berenson has spent much of the last 20 years in prison in Peru following being convicted of aiding the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in planning an assault on the Peruvian Congress. In the early 1990’s, Berenson was drawn towards revolutionary movements in Latin America after leaving college at MIT; she first worked with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in El Salvador, and then she moved to Peru. She was arrested on a bus in Lima after visiting the Peruvian Congress with press credentials, tried before a hooded military judge, and spent part of her prison sentence in an open-air cell in the bitterly cold Yanamayo prison in the Andes mountains and also spent much time placed in complete isolation. Berenson’s imprisonment sparked international outrage, and in 2010 she was granted parole. This week marked the end of her sentence and being able to leave Peru, so she now heads home to the U.S.
