Looking at Peru Spy Chief's 'James Bond' Home
Nov. 28 -- For a peek into the clandestine world ofPeru’s fugitive ex-spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, one need go nofarther than the secret tunnel leading to an escape hatch under hispink bathtub.
Peru’s Panamericana Television has broadcast images of the spymaster’s luxury beach house, hidden behind high windowless walls topped with electrified wires in a resort town just south of Lima.
The home, raided earlier this month by police searching forMontesinos, was amply equipped with escape routes.
One lay under the bathtub, which when lifted reveals a tunnelleading to a secret hatch under a plant bed located in the garageof a neighboring house. Another secret hatch leading to theunderground tunnel was discovered by the indoor pool.
Such personal touches hinted at the life of a man who built up acovert network of power while allegedly bribing politicians,directing death squads and torture and laundering money from drugtrafficking and arms deals.
The dusty treeless streets outside Montesinos’ beach housebelied an opulent setting, replete with wood panel doors reinforcedwith armor plating, a portable satellite phone in the masterbedroom, and hidden cameras in the guest suites and inside a stereospeaker by the indoor pool.
Montesinos remains missing since his return last month from afailed asylum bid in Panama. Former President Alberto Fujimoripersonally led a spectacular — many say staged — manhunt for hisonce-closest aide.
That was before his 10-year authoritarian rulecrumbled under the weight of scandals over Montesinos.
The house was a huge contrast to the regular houses of one of South America’s poorest nations. The government said Montesinos officially earned $370 a month.
Deadly, But Gaudy
Police raided the house this month as part of a hunt for the spy chief wanted on charges ranging from money-laundering to running death squads.
But the James Bond-style beach house was not to everybody’s taste — plastic curtains and fake fireplaces vied for attention with beige bedboards, velvet and beige sofas and wallpaper decorated with gold linings and flowers.
