With protesters gathering daily outside her Lima apartment building, lighting candles and demanding that she be either deported from Peru or reimprisoned, Berenson sent a letter to President Alan Garcia admitting her "criminal responsibility for terrorist collaboration" and further writing "I would also like to say that I very much regret the harm I have caused Peruvian society, and I ask forgiveness from people who have been affected by my actions or words." She then requested that her sentence be commuted so she could return to the United States.