SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- A New York woman on trial for
                  collaborating with leftist guerrillas in Peru earlier aided rebels in El Salvador, a
                  former guerrilla commander testified on Thursday.

                  But Lori Berenson never took part in the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
                  Front's military operations, Leonel Gonzalez told The Associated Press.

                  "Her work was fundamentally in aid and support of me personally," said
                  Gonzalez, who is now head of the Front's delegation in El Salvador's congress.

                  Peruvian prosecutors allege that Berenson, 31, had helped the Tupac Amaru
                  Revolutionary Movement -- known by its Spanish acronym MRTA -- by renting
                  a safehouse used as a base to plan a thwarted attack on Peru's congress.

                  "She is accused of planning the seizure of congress... That information surprised
                  me because she had no military experience," Gonzalez said. "Here in El Salvador
                  she never had any relationship with our military structures."

                  He said she began helping the Salvadoran rebel movement in the late 1980s,
                  working with its office in Washington, D.C. She served as an aide to Gonzalez
                  during meetings in the United States, Mexico and Central America. In 1992,
                  peace accords ended the civil war and Berenson lived for a time in El Salvador.

                  Gonzalez said her association with the Front ended in 1993.

                  Gonzalez said the accusations against Berenson were "unjust" because "she was
                  not even trained for all the things she is accused of, nor would she have been in
                  that type of activity."

                  Prosecutors in Peru questioned Berenson about her time in El Salvador and
                  neighboring Nicaragua during her second day in court.

                  A secret military court convicted Berenson of treason in 1996 and sentenced her
                  to life in prison for plotting with MRTA to overthrow Congress.

                  Peru's highest military court overturned that conviction in August, after years of
                  pressure from the United States, and her case was reopened by prosecutors in
                  civilian court on lesser charges of "terrorist collaboration."

                  Berenson was arrested with the wife of the top rebel leader on a bus in
                  November 1995, hours before authorities raided the house that she had rented.

                  Fourteen rebels were captured after an 11-hour gun battle, including the group's
                  second-ranking leader, Miguel Rincon, whom Berenson said she knew by a
                  different name after he had moved into the house.

                  Berenson said she had interesting discussions with him about Peru's history and
                  social problems. She moved into a separate apartment three months before the
                  police raid.

                  Prosecutors say Berenson and the rebel leader's wife posed as journalists to gain
                  entrance into the Congress to collect information to prepare for an attack.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.