Jose Antonio Alvarez spent four and a half years in prison, a sentence that ended three months ago with a presidential pardon. You can only go into the yard, into daylight, for half an hour. According to human rights organizations, Peru's prisons hold at least 1,700 people falsely accused of crimes in terrorism. For months, they are denied any contact with the outside world, their families, or even their attorneys. They wanted to hang themselves, they looked for anything to kill themselves.
Peruvian authorities say their harsh laws and prison conditions are a deterrent against subversion.
That may be so, says Susana Villaran, executive secretary of the Human Rights National Coordination Committee, but that doesn't mean they are appropriate. Villaran said that the United Nations and Organization of American States experts have found Peru's terrorist legislation to be the most drastic in the world. We recognize that and we've been trying to correct it, especially with regards to unjust detentions committed by military tribunals or the judicial system. While conditions are harsh for those jailed for terrorism, they are even worse for rebel leaders like Victor Polay, who has been in solitary confinement for almost three years. No running water, a cement bed and with only the light that comes in at times from a slit in the ceiling.