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Fujimori denies close relationship with reviled spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori speaks during his trial at a police base in Lima on Friday. PHOTO: AP

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on Friday downplayed the role a former spymaster accused of organizing a death squad played in his government, saying he never ceded power to Vladimiro Montesinos.

On the third day of Fujimori's trial for murder and kidnapping, prosecutors sought to demonstrate a close relationship between the former president and Montesinos, the feared intelligence chief and reputed powerbroker behind Fujimori's autocratic regime.

"I want to make clear that he did not co-govern with Alberto Fujimori," the former president said, visibly irritated by the prosecution's suggestion of Montesinos' power. "I never ceded an important part of power. I continued to be the supreme chief of the armed forces."

Fujimori, 69, is on trial for charges stemming from his alleged use of the Colina death squad to fight a bloody Maoist insurgency during his government, which was in power from 1990 to 2000. Fujimori has denied that he authorized a Montesinos-led dirty war against the rebels.

Fujimori fled to Japan as his government collapsed amid a corruption scandal involving Montesinos. But in 2005 the former president flew to Chile in an apparent attempt to return to politics in Peru. Chile, however, extradited him to Peru in September.

On Friday, Assistant Prosecutor Avelino Guillen sought to demonstrate Fujimori's heavy dependence on Montesinos in matters involving the military. Fujimori was often evasive in his answers, but rejected outright that he and Montesinos had co-governed.

"We are trying to prove that Mr Montesinos actively participated at the decision-making level of the Colina group," Guillen said, defending his line of questioning when challenged by Fujimori's defense attorney Cesar Nakazaki.

Fujimori said he "knew no one in military circles" when he came to power. But he said he did not rely solely on Montesinos, a cashiered army captain, to run the armed forces, seeking to undercut the popular perception that Montesinos manipulated Fujimori through the information he fed him or withheld.

Fujimori said he personally designed his anti-rebel strategy, which he described as based on close cooperation with peasants.

Montesinos is being held at a high-security prison on a navy base in the adjoining port of Callao.
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