The retrial of Peru's Maoist Shining Path rebel group entered its second full month with the defense and prosecution spending more time questioning the court than each other. Guzmán's attorney, Manuel Fajardo, spent the first month of the trial objecting to the court, its location on a military base and the generic charge of terrorism. He also continued his fight against the retrial itself, putting forth motions for dismissal based on "double jeopardy," since Guzmán already stood trial on terrorism after his arrest in September 1992 *see IJT-33+. The prosecutor did not stand idly by either. State Attorney Guillermo Cabala has questioned the court on several occasions, actually accusing it of being a platform for airing terrorist grievances. Cabala was fined $3,000 on October 20 for saying that the court "has become a platform from which Shining Path leaders can proclaim that they are political prisoners." One of three judges on the court, Jimena Cayo, warned Cabala that he could be suspended for two months if he continued with his attacks. Cabala's comments came after the court allowed the defense to call additional witnesses and decided to review on a case-by-case basis the use of witnesses whose identities the prosecution wants to keep secret for their protection.

While Cabala slammed the court for allegedly being soft on terrorism, Fajardo argued against the special court itself. Guzmán and the other detainees are being tried by the Special Criminal Court for Terrorism Cases, a division created in the 1990s. Fajardo wants Guzmán tried in a regular courtroom and under the Criminal Code, not anti-terrorism legislation. Fajardo points out that the special court and much of the anti-terrorism legislation currently on the books did not exist when Guzmán was arrested in September 1992 and therefore does not apply to him. "Dr. Guzmán is being tried under special legislation, by a special court in a special courtroom built on a military base. There is no way we can expect a fair trial given all these special conditions," said Fajardo.

Fajardo and the other defense attorneys in the trial question the location of the courtroom on a military base. This criticism also applies to the prison on the base. They say Peru is the only country in Latin America (not counting the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba) that incarcerates civilian inmates at military bases. In addition to Guzmán, one other Shining Path inmate, three men from the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), a smaller rebel group, and Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the national security, are being held in the special prison built on the base. Ironically, it was Montesinos, when he ran the country with former President Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s, who had the special cells built for Guzmán and the MRTA leadership.

Ramírez secedes

Guzmán and ten of the other defendants have taken turns telling the judges that they do not plan on testifying in the trial, which could last anywhere between six months and a year. In his first and only intervention on October 10, Guzmán told the court, "I am not a terrorist, I have never been a terrorist and I will never be a terrorist. I am a revolutionary combatant and leader of the Communist Party- Shining Path, and I assume my political responsibility in the war." The other defendants, with the exception of Oscar Ramírez, acknowledged their role in the Shining Path. Ramírez, who was the third-ranking party member, broke with Guzmán once they were in prison. Ramírez has alternately accused Guzmán of being a coward, an assassin and a drug trafficker.

His attacks on Guzmán, however, are being carefully evaluated by the court. "Ramírez offers a lot of detail because of his privileged spot in the Shining Path hierarchy, but his accusations cannot also be taken at face value. He tends to fantasize," said retired Col. Benedicto Jiménez, who led the team that arrested Guzmán 13 years ago.