Background
Berenson was born in New York City to Rhoda and Mark Berenson, both college professors. On her web site, she states that she volunteered for soup kitchens and blood banks and also worked as a mother's helper in the Hamptons as a teenager. While an undergraduate at MIT, she volunteered with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Before graduating, she left MIT to work with CISPES. Later she went to El Salvador and became secretary and translator for Leonel González, a leader of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), during negotiations that achieved peace in 1992. FMLN was at that time an umbrella organization associated with various leftist guerilla organizations and the Salvadoran Communist Party and working to overthrow the Salvadoran military dictatorship. FMLN transitioned during the peace process to a become a legal political party. Gonzalez (aka Salvador Sánchez Cerén) is currently the Vice President of El Salvador.
After political reconciliation came to El Salvador, Berenson moved to Peru. During her travels and political activities, she claims she was supported by an educational trust fund established by her parents.
Read more about this topic: Lori Berenson
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