June 28, 2002

A University President Helps Peru Face Its Anguished Past

By MICHAEL EASTERBROOK

Salomón Lerner Febres leads a truth commission investigating two decades of violence

Salomón Lerner Febres was a dean at Peru's Catholic University when Shining Path guerrillas in the nation's highlands set fire to ballot boxes during presidential elections on May 18, 1980 -- marking the start of the bloodiest era of this South American country's history.

For the next two decades, Mr. Lerner watched the horror unfold from the private university here in the

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