We regret the death of the veteran wrestler Hugo Blanco in Peru

Blanco died of serious health problems at the age of 88, and he used to relate that when he was very young, he saw how the landowner marked the peasant with his initials, with the hot iron he used to brand his cattle, and which aroused in him. Feelings of solidarity and rebellion.

Born on November 15, 1934 in the Southern Andean region of Cusco, he began his political activity in his youth and in 1962 and 1963 he organized peasant unions for the first time in Peru in the province of Cusco in La Convencion and promoted the occupation of large estates. .

For this he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but was released in 1969 with an amnesty for guerrillas and other political prisoners.

In 1978, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which drew up a new Magna Carta, completed in 1979.

He was also an MP between 1980 and 1985 and in 1990 he was elected senator as representative of the United Left Front, a position he ceased in 1992 due to the self-coup of then-governor, Alberto Fujimori.

He was deported several times and lived in exile in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Sweden and in his fall years he added to his fight for social change advocacy of the environment. “Before, I fought for the peasants and workers,” he said, “and today for the human race.”

JCM/Mrs