Peru's Fujimori Hunts Former Spy Chief, Critics Skeptical

L I M A, Peru, Oct. 26, 2000 -- A bleary-eyed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori forged ahead today with a tireless, around-the-clock manhunt for the former spy chief threatening his fragile grip on power, even as analysts said his spectacular search may just be a bluff.

Just hours after announcing the manhunt for VladimiroMontesinos, Fujimori left his presidential palace at 2 a.m. local time and — accompanied by his army search team and his daughter — headed north along a main highway.

Fujimori, who said the search was simply to find Montesinosrather than arrest him, last stopped at the rural village of Chaclacayo, about 22 miles from Lima. He personally led an operation on Wednesday with sniffer dogs roaming thehillside and helicopters hovering overhead.

Montesinos, Peru’s most unpopular political figure due to aseries of alleged rights abuses, was at the center of acorruption scandal that led Fujimori to make the shockannouncement five weeks ago that he would quit next July, four years early, after holding elections.

Fujimori also fired Montesinos — his top aide during 10 years in power — prompting the disgraced spy chief to fly to Panama.

But Montesinos returned unexpectedly to Peru on Mondayafter the failed asylum bid.

Seeking Montesinos for His Own Safety

Fujimori today sent reporters scurrying right and left as he strode about, pointing and frowning in his most attention-grabbing maneuver since the return.

Shouting to reporters through a megaphone from theroadside, the president said he just wanted to find him — for his own safety.

“The operation will continue day and night until he isfound, to give him security out of respect for a person who has fought against terrorism and narco-trafficking ,” he said.

Montesinos has not been seen in public since he returned.

What would happen when Fujimori found him remained unclear.Talk that Montesinos could flee again, perhaps to Venezuela, has swirled in recent days.

Talks Deadlock Broken

In a breakthrough on Wednesday, the government andopposition agreed to hold the election by April 8.

Fujimori was re-elected in a May runoff vote tainted by fraud charges.

The election date breakthrough came after the governmentunexpectedly dropped demands to make the vote conditional on a sweeping amnesty for officials facing human rights charges.

Not everyone believed Fujimori’s hunt for the notorious head of his once all-powerful intelligence service (SIN), a man he once said he would put his “hands in the fire” for, was real.

Fujimori’s “Montesinos manhunt” caps a series of mysterydashes to military bases to purge pro-Montesinos officials, and even a personal swoop on an official in a supermarket. Some analysts said it was a publicity stunt designed to show a vigorous president standing firm against his ex-ally.

“I was struck by how spectacular and how inefficient theoperation was, and the fact that it is being used as mediapropaganda,” political analyst Carlos Tapia told CPN radio.

Political analyst Mirko Lauer said, “This looks like anattempt to clean up Fujimori’s image at the cost of Montesinos’ image and everyone is following the script.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Montesinos is captured, broughtbefore the courts ... and gets off,” Lauer, who writes foropposition publications, said.

Amid what diplomats and analysts have painted as a bitterbattle for control of the armed forces — and the country — Fujimori also announced the military was right behind him.

Nevertheless, as if fearing Montesinos loyalists could mount a coup, he said the military had been confined to barracks.

Who Controls the Military?

Montesinos long called the shots with powerful militarychiefs he hand picked. One military source told Reuters thearmed forces were now divided — but loyalties were splitbetween those who were with Montesinos and those who wereagainst him, rather than between Montesinos and Fujimori.

“Montesinos is still controlling everything,” the sourcesaid.

Meanwhile, popular support for the effort to captureMontesinos ran high. One demonstrator paraded through central Lima in a cage wearing striped, prison-style garb and a mask of Montesinos.

The manhunt ended shortly before Latin America’s topregional diplomat, Secretary General of the Organization of American States Cesar Gaviria, announced a breakthrough in stuttering talks paving the way to planned elections.

Analysts say Peru must free its courts, media and electionauthorities from government control before fair elections can be held — and no progress has been made yet.

Fujimori, aided by Montesinos at the helm of the SIN, iswidely credited with freeing Peru from the grip of rebelviolence and drug lords. But the same authoritarian streak that restored peace has fuelled opposition to his continued rule.

Montesinos, a dismissed army captain who went on to becomespy chief, is accused of spying for the CIA and authorizingtorture, phone taps and death squads in some of Peru’s mostnotorious human rights cases.