| http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/06/24/peru.montesinos/index.html
Peru's fugitive ex-spy chief caught in Caracas CARACAS, Venezuela -- Peru's fugitive former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos was captured Saturday night in the Venezuela capital, President Hugo Chavez said. Montesinos had fled from Peru after being accused of a number of crimes, including stealing state funds, taking kickbacks from illegal drugs and arms deals, running death squads, and ordering torture of opponents. The capture in Caracas was confirmed by Peru's interior minister Ketin Vidal. Montesinos was captured by officials from Venezuela's military intelligence at 10 p.m. Saturday in an area of the city called 23 de Enero. He was taken to a military jail. Peruvian Prime Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar called the capture a moral victory for Peru. Peru's interior minister was planning to travel on Sunday to Caracas to get the suspect and take him back to Peru. But the timing was not clear. Peruvian state attorney Jose Ugaz told CNN he was awaiting a decision on whether Montesinos would be expelled immediately from Venezuela or whether proceedings would delay his extradition several months. Ugaz said extradition proceedings -- if necessary -- should go smoothly between the two Latin American countries, which have similar extradition protocols. Montesinos sparked a scandal in Peru, where he was caught on videotape apparently bribing a congressman. As a result of the incident, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was stripped of office as "morally unfit" to rule last November. The spy chief was later also said to have allegedly manipulated Peru's courts, media and military. Peru has not had luck bringing Fujimori back from Japan, where Fujimori is in self-exile. Because Fujimori has Japanese nationality, he cannot be extradited, according to Japanese law. "The Japanese government is giving [Fujimori] absolute cover," Ugaz said. "We suppose now Montesinos will give us a lot of new evidence that will demonstrate [to] the Japanese government that Fujimori is a common criminal." Peru has charged Fujimori, its hard-line president from 1990 to 2000, with dereliction of duty and the attorney general has also called for him to be tried for responsibility in a 1991 massacre by an army death squad. |
