Vladimiro Montesinos | |
---|---|
Director of the National Intelligence Service | |
In office 28 July 1990 – 14 September 2000 | |
President | Alberto Fujimori |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres 20 May 1945 Arequipa, Peru |
Political party | Cambio 90 (1990–2001) New Majority (1990–2001) |
Other political affiliations | Peru 2000 (1999–2001) Alliance for the Future (2005–2010) |
Spouse |
Trinidad Becerra
(m. 1973; div. 2001) |
Children | Silvana Montesinos Becerra |
Alma mater | U.S. Army's School of the Americas Military School of Chorillos |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Peru |
Branch/service | Peruvian Army |
Rank | Captain |
Part of a series on |
Conservatism in Peru |
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Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres (born 20 May 1945) is a Peruvian former intelligence officer who was the long-standing head of Peru's National Intelligence Service (SIN) and was reportedly the de facto leader of Peru while President Alberto Fujimori served as a figurehead leader.[1][2] Montesinos had strong connections with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for over 25 years and was said to have received $10 million from the agency for his government's anti-terrorist activities, with international bank accounts possessed by Montesinos reportedly holding at least $270 million.[3][4][5] The United States reportedly supported the candidacy of Fujimori during the 1990 Peruvian general election due to his links to Montesinos[6][7] and ignored human rights abuses performed under Montesinos during the 1990s.[8] In 2000, the infamous "Vladi-videos" came to light when they were broadcast on the news. They were secret videos recorded by Montesinos that showed him bribing elected congressmen into leaving the opposition and joining the pro-Fujimori group of the Congress. The ensuing scandal caused Montesinos to flee the country and prompted Fujimori's resignation.
Subsequent investigations revealed Montesinos to be at the centre of a vast web of illegal activities, including embezzlement, graft, gunrunning, drug trafficking, and extrajudicial killings. He has been tried, convicted and sentenced for numerous charges. Even after losing power and the resignation of Alberto Fujimori, and being himself imprisoned, Montesinos still tried to influence Peruvian politics and attempted to protect several Fujimorist politicians, including Keiko Fujimori.
In the 1990s, Peru was run ... by its secret-police chief, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres.
The coup of April 5, 1992, carried out by high-ranking military felons who used the President of the Republic himself as their figurehead, had as one of its stated objectives a guaranteed free hand for the armed forces in the anti-subversion campaign, the same armed forces for whom the democratic system – a critical Congress, an independent judiciary, a free press – constituted an intolerable obstacle.
Lester: Though few questioned it, Montesinos was a novel choice. Peru's army had banished him for selling secrets to America's CIA, but he'd prospered as a defence lawyer – for accused drug traffickers. ... Lester: Did Fujmori control Montesinos or did Montesinos control Fujimori? ... Shifter: As information comes out, it seems increasingly clear that Montesinos was the power in Peru.
Mr Montesinos ... and his military faction, ... for the moment, has chosen to keep Mr Fujimori as its civilian figurehead
Alberto Fujimori,... as later events would seem to confirm—merely the figurehead of a regime governed for all practical purposes by the Intelligence Service and the leadership of the armed forces
Fujimori became a kind of, well, a figurehead
important members of the officer corps, particularly within the army, had been contemplating a military coup and the establishment of an authoritarian regime, or a so-called directed democracy. The project was known as 'Plan Verde', the Green Plan. ... Fujimori essentially adopted the Green Plan and the military became a partner in the regime. ... The self-coup, of April 5, 1992, dissolved the Congress and the country's constitution and allowed for the implementation of the most important components of the Green Plan
Lester: Though few questioned it, Montesinos was a novel choice. Peru's army had banished him for selling secrets to America's CIA, but he'd prospered as a defence lawyer – for accused drug traffickers. ... Lester: Did Fujmori control Montesinos or did Montesinos control Fujimori? ... Shifter: As information comes out, it seems increasingly clear that Montesinos was the power in Peru.
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