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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth