http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2000-11/peru271100.shtml Peru's leader purges spymaster's military allies base
By Jan McGirk, Latin America Correspondent
27 November 2000
The new interim President of Peru has ordered a purge of the military with close links to the country's fugitive spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Mr Paniagua decommissioned 16 senior generals at the weekend, suspected of acting as the former spymaster's secret power base in the army.
The armed forces chief General Walter Chacon and the air force chief General Carlos Balarezo were among thoseabruptly fired. General Chacon, an appointee of Peru's sacked president, Alberto Fujimori, was replaced by Carlos Tafur, who had been forced into early retirement for speaking out against Mr Montesinos.
Peru's new Defence Minister, Walter Ledesma, said: "We are going to guarantee the impartiality of the armed forces in the electoral process, which is drawing closer. That is the principal task of our transitional government."
With the former UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar appointed as Prime Minister, Peru's new government is overseeing the transition from 10 years of Mr Fujimori's iron rule to presidential elections in the spring.
One goal unites the country: get Montesinos. Peruvians are clamouring for the ex-security chief to be found, seized and tried for corruption and human rights abuses.
Rumours are rife that Mr Montesinos, 54, is lying low on a Lima military base, hidden by renegade officers. Others allege he slipped into Asuncion, Paraguay, disguised as a flight attendant. They also say he is hiding as a rancho across the Bolivian frontier, or is thriving in Moscow's underworld with his allies in the Russian mafia.
The former head of the National Intelligence Service, (SIN) has not been seen for more than a month. The country's populist new leader, Alejandro Toledo, has not ruled out the possibility that the most feared man in Peru has quietly been killed. He held secret files on the highest echelons of Peruvian politicians and warriors and was dangerous while loose.
Mr Montesinos moulded the SIN into a formidable surveillance apparatus to intimidate political foes, after it had rooted out Maoist guerrillas. Mr Fujimori abolished the SIN last month. A reformist Congressman, Luis Iberico, said: "SIN scared me. They had money, resources, people – they could do whatever they wanted."
The special prosecutor, Jose Ugaz, who has opened investigations into Mr Fujimori's finances, is under pressure to pursue Mr Montesinos in court and end impunity for alleged wiretapping, money laundering, extortion, blackmail, torture, and ordering murders.
A new video, the latest to be leaked by opponents who tapped into Mr Montesinos' stash of blackmail tapes, was broadcast at the weekend. It prompted the resignation of Nelly Calderon, the Attorney General. The video showed her grinning beside the head spy-cum-villain and an international arms dealer at the SIN headquarters. Emerging evidence shows Mr Montesinos controlled the Peruvian government like a criminal empire, managing drug links to Colombia and Mexico. He dressed like a mobster. His hidden wardrobe, with 1,500 Dior silk shirts, six Rolex watches and 15 pairs of bespoke alligator shoes, was put on public show this month after a police raid.