A presidential adviser with long ties to narcotics traffickers played a central role in the break with constitutional rule here, raising the specter of drug cartels exercising powerful influence at the top of Peru's government.
The adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, has used his influence with President Alberto Fujimori to purge the police of many honest officers, in some cases replacing them with associates tied to trafficking, and now is directing the most sweeping reorganization of Peru's judiciary in three decades, according to prominent jurists.Montesinos, a 47-year-old attorney and former army captain, enjoys an ambiguous relationship with the Bush administration. Some U.S. officials express private outrage over his mounting influence. But the CIA recently has reinvigorated the longtime relationship that caused Montesinos' expulsion from the Peruvian army in 1976 for selling military secrets.
After becoming Fujimori's personal attorney and de facto national security adviser two years ago, Montesinos paved the way for the April 5 coup by helping Fujimori install manageable officers in top military posts and by extending his control over the country's intelligence apparatus, according to several retired military officers.
In a meeting 48 hours before Fujimori announced his seizure of emergency powers, Montesinos briefed Peru's army, air force and navy chiefs, outlining their role in the takeover, Peruvians familiar with the events said. In the days since, several of Montesinos' enemies have accused him of using emergency powers to settle old scores.
Vice President Maximo San Roman, an industrialist who was Fujimori's running mate in the 1990 elections, broke with the president last week. In a nationwide radio speech Monday, he asked: "How can Fujimori moralize Peru when he has lost his own morality? What can he say about fighting narcotics trafficking when he has concentrated all decisionmaking power with his adviser, the well-known Mr. Montesinos?"
Montesinos never has been charged with a drug crime, but his longtime ties to the drug mafias have raised concerns. He has amassed a fortune in the past decade as a lawyer defending and representing traffickers. In one case, he signed legal documents on behalf of a Colombian client to rent two Lima buildings where a police raid weeks later turned up a cocaine processing and warehousing operation. In another major case, Montesinos used his influence in the attorney general's office to put on trial honest police who had broken up a drug gang.
One intelligence report the DEA received on Montesinos last year detailed the lawyer's alleged friendships with two prominent traffickers and concluded: "Montesinos has succeeded in gaining the unconditional confidence of the president . . . from which position he . . . arranges the appointment of ministers and advisers as well as transfers of army and police officers . . . always with the aim of supporting narcotics trafficking."
Although he exercises extraordinary influence, Montesinos never has appeared in public with Fujimori and has not been photographed since 1983.