Lori Berenson back in Peru on parole after trip home to US

GlobalPost

Lori Berenson, an American woman convicted of helping guerillas in Peru, has returned there after her first trip back to the US in decades.

According to the conditions of her parole, she must remain in Peru until 2015. Yet when she was given permission to visit the US last month, many Peruvians expected her never to return, the BBC reported.

More from GlobalPost: Lori Berenson returns to US on parole

Contrary to their expectations, Berenson landed in Lima at 11:40 PM local time Thursday, according to local reports. She did not give a statement.

Reuters said she was accompanied by the two-year-old son she has with her Peruvian husband, former guerilla Anibal Apari.

Berenson spent a total of 17 days in the US, after arriving on Dec. 20. A judge had given her until Jan. 11 to return to Peru and complete her parole.

Now 42, Berenson was arrested as young woman in 1995 and convicted of being an accomplice to terrorism. She was given a life sentence by a military court, but US pressure led her to be retried by a civilian one.

More from GlobalPost: Colombia: a wannabe revolutionary?

Berenson, who admitted to helping the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) rebel group rent a safe house, has insisted she was not part of the group and did not know they stored weapons in the house.

According to Reuters, her release from jail in Nov. 2010 was controversial in Peru, "where people still are traumatized by memories of a long civil war that killed 69,000 people."

Peru's Congress passed a bill on Wednesday banning convicted terrorists on parole from getting permission to travel abroad, the Peru This Week website reported.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.