Montesinos’s mistake was bugging his own office. A hidden camera caught him giving $15,000 to an opposition lawmaker. The Moralizing Front–one of whose leaders is Fujimori’s embittered ex-wife–got hold of the videotape and released it two weeks ago. Already under fire for apparently rigging last spring’s presidential election, Fujimori abruptly announced he would dismantle the SIN, resign his own office and call elections “as soon as possible.” Then the transition came to a jarring halt. Fujimori, 62, said he would stay in power until his successor is inaugurated–10 months from now. He hinted he might run for president again in 2006. “I’ve got a little surprise for you about what I’m going to do,” he said.
For days, Fujimori neglected to fire Montesinos. Instead, the intelligence chief dropped out of sight; rumors variously had him plotting a coup and negotiating his own exile. Panama refused to take him in, but Brazil was considering asylum. Late last week the government finally agreed with opposition representatives on a plan to strip him of his official functions.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders dithered on the politics of the crisis. A call for a united front came from Alejandro Toledo, the Stanford-trained economist who finished second in the first round of the voting last April and then dropped out of the runoff against Fujimori, accusing the president of cheating. But other party leaders rejected Toledo’s plea. A divided opposition could give the next election to the candidate of Fujimori’s party–who, by the end of last week, still had not been chosen from a field of yes men. If his nominee wins, Fujimori would become the next power behind the throne–and possibly his successor’s successor.
Can Fujimori run Peru without his most valuable fixer? Among Montesinos’s other duties, he collected dirt about the tax evasions, embezzlements and love affairs of Peru’s economic and political elite. Some Peruvians suspected he may also have dug up a dark secret about Fujimori. He was accused of directing human-rights abuses in the brutal war against the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas. Critics said he took bribes, including payoffs from drug lords. Government officials have denied such charges. By 1998, Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. drug czar, said publicly he wanted nothing to do with Montesinos. Three weeks ago Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the national-security adviser, Sandy Berger, met with Fujimori in New York. They “gave him hell,” as a senior U.S. official put it, and urged him to clean up his regime.
Even bigger trouble was brewing for Montesinos at home. Last May he had a meeting in his office with a congressman named Alberto Kouri. He wanted Kouri to defect to Fujimori’s bloc in Congress, where the governing party had lost its majority. As usual, Montesinos had the meeting taped, apparently to acquire evidence that would compromise the legislator. In the video that was shown later on TV, Montesinos is heard asking Kouri: “How much, how much?” He pulls out a wad of U.S. currency. “Here is 10 [thousand],” he says. Kouri replies: “No, we spoke of 15, 20.” Pulling out another stack of bills, Montesinos says: “Ten plus five–15.” He clinches the deal. (Later, Kouri admitted taking the money, but said it was a loan to pay for giving food to the needy.)
Two weeks ago Luis Iberico, a former journalist who sits in Congress for the Moralizing Front, obtained the videotape. He wouldn’t say where he got it, but local press reports suggested the source may have been a disgruntled naval officer at SIN headquarters. Susana Higuchi, Fujimori’s ex-wife, who also represents the front in Congress, said the party had other incriminating tapes. But, she said, “we do not plan to release the other videos because there would be chaos.”
Once Fujimori announced his plan to resign, the question was whether Montesinos would try to stir up a coup by the Army. After four days of silence, the armed forces came down on Fujimori’s side, saying they supported his decision to call new elections and phase out the SIN. That gave Fujimori a shot at arranging his own future. “I’m not saying goodbye yet,” he announced. But the partnership with Montesinos was finished. “All that remains is the division of their community property,” joked Iberico. That included 10 years’ worth of dirty secrets stored up by Montesinos. More tales from his crypt may yet come back to haunt Peru.
