Last winter Fujimori's rival, Alejandro Toledo, came to New York and made Lori Berenson a campaign issue. He promised that he would look into her case. She is in the fourth year of her sentence. Only a comedian would say she had due process in a Peruvian military court, where she was found guilty of ''aggravated terrorism'' by hooded judges. Toledo, who refused to participate in the election because of the absence of antifraud measures, said he would ''personally interview'' the former MIT student who says she was set up by the Peruvian secret police.
Terrorism is in Peru what communism used to be in our politics.
It is radioactive. Toledo backed off, mumbling about having been misunderstood or misquoted. The Berensons have no idea whether a Toledo victory would have meant the release of their daughter from her windowless cell in Arequipa. She was in a bad way at her trial. She had been in a cell for 39 days in the same clothes she was wearing when arrested.