Berenson now barred from leaving Peru

The AP is now reporting that Lori Berenson has been denied permission from leaving Peru to spend the holidays in New York with her family. 

"They didn't let me leave and they're putting out this version that I arrived late," she said in a brief phone call with The Associated Press, referring to media reports citing unnamed airport officials.

Peru's anti-terrorism prosecutor, Julio Galindo, told the AP that on Friday he asked the court that approved Berenson's leave to nullify the decision because it violated a law prohibiting paroled prisoners to leave the country.

He said he did not know if the court had acted on his appeal.

Berenson, who was paroled last year after serving 15 years for aiding leftist rebels, was given permission to leave the country beginning Friday with the stipulation that she return by Jan. 11.

She had been denied such permission in October, but a three-judge appeals court on Wednesday overturned that lower court judge's ruling, said Guillermo Gonzalez, spokesman for Peru's judicial system.

On Friday, we learned that a Peruvian court had granted Berenson the opportunity to travel to NY between December 16th and January 11th. She would have the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Year's with friends and family as well as celebrate her dad's seventieth birthday. However, she would then have to return to Peru and finish her sentence that runs through 2015.

Perhaps now is a good time for President Humala to step in and say that we are done, that he doesn't want her treatment to become an embarrassment for the people of Peru. Acting in the holiday spirit, it's best the he commute her sentence and let her return to the US for good.