Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX) Copyright: 2001 Amarillo Globe-News Contact: http://amarillonet.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/13 Author: The Associated Press PERU'S MOST WANTED FUGITIVE APPREHENDED CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - After a tense stakeout, Venezuelan secret police captured South America's most wanted man, Peru's ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, accused of amassing a fortune by dealing drugs and weapons. The capture, announced Sunday by Venezuela's president, ends an eight-month chase for the man many Peruvians say effectively ran their country for years with a network of corruption. Montesinos was seized inside a Caracas safehouse late Saturday, a beaming President Hugo Chavez announced during a summit of Andean leaders in the central Venezuelan city of Valencia. "Fortunately, we have captured Vladimiro Montesinos alive," Chavez said, adding that the spymaster would be deported to Peru "faster than a rooster crows." Montesinos, 55, was being held at the Military Intelligence Directorate headquarters in Caracas. As reporters crowded outside, soldiers with automatic rifles guarded the building. At home, Montesinos faces charges ranging from money laundering to corruption to directing death squads. Peru had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Montesinos, alleged to have stashed away tens of millions of dollars in Swiss banks. "We knew as of yesterday at 11 in the morning that there was an operation to capture Montesinos and we are anxiously awaiting news," Peruvian President Valentin Paniagua said from the southern city of Arequipa, where he was surveying damage from an earthquake. Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar thanked Chavez for the arrest of what he called "a delinquent drug trafficker" who will be tried "like any delinquent in our country." Interior Minister Antonio Ketin Vidal also praised intelligence agencies from other nations, including the FBI. He said details of the chase would be made public later. As head of Peru's powerful spy agency, Montesinos had been the power broker behind the government during Fujimori's 10-year rule. Investigators have detailed a huge criminal network run by Montesinos by which he controlled politicians, courts, military officials and businessmen through bribery and blackmail. But Montesinos' fall began in September when videos were broadcast on television appearing to show him bribing an opposition congressman to support the government. As the crisis grew, Montesinos fled to Panama. But when he was refused asylum there, he returned to Peru and went into hiding. During his time in hiding, Montesinos reportedly underwent plastic surgery in Caracas in December to alter his hawklike features. Venezuelan Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel once described the manhunt as passing from "magical realism" to a "serial novel." Chavez and presidential secretary Diosdado Caballo said that secret police had been watching a suspected safehouse in one of Caracas' poorest neighborhoods for several days. Montesinos - who moved frequently - was arrested at 10:30 p.m. before he could slip to another hiding place. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth