Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Author: The Associated Press

WANTED EX-SPY CHIEF FROM PERU CAPTURED

CARACAS, Venezuela - 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. His scandals 
led to the downfall in November of Peruvian President Alberto 
Fujimori.

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.

Deportation was expected "within 24 hours," Venezuela's interior 
minister told the state news agency Venpres. In Peru, Panamerica 
Television broadcast two air force jets taking off, apparently for 
Caracas.

Montesinos, 55, was being held at the Military Intelligence 
Directorate headquarters in Caracas. As reporters crowded outside, 
soldiers with automatic rifles guarded the building, its windows 
blackened.

At home, Montesinos faces charges ranging from money laundering to 
corruption to directing death squads. Peru had offered a $5 million 
reward for Montesinos, alleged to have stashed away tens of millions 
of dollars in Swiss banks.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe