Yesterday, president Alberto Fujimori of Peru met with president clinton to discuss the 49-day-old hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima, Peru. The rebels of the Tupac Amaru revolutionary movement (MRTA) have been holding 72 Peruvian government officials as well as Japanese businessmen and diplomats since Dec. 17. They are demanding the release of jailed comrades, an improvement in Peru’s notorious prison and judicial system and an end to economic austerity measures.

Here to update us on the latest developments in Washington and Peru is Coletta Youngers a senior associate at the Washington office on latin america, a human rights, policy advocacy and research organization.