Peru Ex-President Fujimoro Arrested In Chile

by Gustavo Gonzalez

(IPS) SANTIAGO -- Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was arrested Nov. 7 in Chile after arriving here unexpectedly on Sunday, and will be facing an extradition trial within the next few days.

Fujimori, a fugitive from justice who has been living in exile in Japan since he fled there in 2000, was arrested in his hotel after Chilean Supreme Court magistrate Orlando Alvarez issued an arrest warrant for him at the request of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry.

Peruvian Interior Minister Romulo Pizarro and special anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Maldonado were to arrive in Santiago Monday, along with relatives of victims of human rights violations committed under the Fujimori regime (1990-2000), to take part in the extradition trial that is set to begin within the next few days.

The ex-president landed in Santiago in a private jet at 16:30 local time on Sunday, after apparently making a stopover in Atlanta, Georgia. He entered Chile as a tourist and immediately headed to the Marriott hotel, where he stayed for 12 hours, until he was taken into custody by the police.

In a statement read by his spokesman Luis Silva Santiesteban, a former ambassador and a leader of Fujimori's new political party "Si cumple" (Yes, he delivers), the former president had said that he planned to stay for a short time in Chile in order to prepare for his return to Peru, where he wants to run in the Apr. 9, 2006 presidential elections.

The 67-year-old agricultural engineer of Japanese descent plans to challenge the February 2001 decision by the Peruvian Congress that banned him from holding public office for 10 years.

Fujimori faces 21 charges, ranging from corruption to authorizing a paramilitary death squad.

Analysts have speculated that the former president's plan seems to involve a high-profile role in the April elections in Peru, even if he himself is unable to stand as a candidate and has to observe the elections from behind prison bars. His hopes would be for a victory for a "Si cumple" candidate, who would then go on to clear Fujimori's name and ensure that all charges against him are dropped.

Fujimori reached Chile three days after the Peruvian Congress unanimously passed a new law redrawing the sea border between the two countries, thus extending Peruvian jurisdiction southwards over a triangular area encompassing almost 15,000 square miles of rich fishing waters.

President Ricardo Lagos objected to the Peruvian law and said his country would continue to exercise full sovereignty over the maritime area in dispute, in accordance with border treaties signed by the two countries in 1952 and 1954.

Lagos and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo both attended the fourth Summit of the Americas over the weekend in Mar del Plata, Argentina. But they did not meet to discuss the conflict, which Chile considers a bilateral issue, while Peru is prepared to take the matter to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Peru's new law on maritime boundaries, which invokes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ratcheted up the tension in the over 100-year dispute between Chile and Peru that dates back to the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific in which Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia, annexing the former Peruvian province of Tarapaca and the former Bolivian province of Antofagasta.

In order to take part in the April elections in Peru, Fujimori would have to officially become a candidate in January at the latest, which would explain his decision to leave his safe refuge in Japan, whose government had refused to extradite him.

The most serious charge faced by the former Peruvian president involves two massacres in which a total of 25 people -- including a young boy -- were killed. The murders were committed in Lima in 1991 and 1992 by the Colina army death squad.

He is also accused of illicit association to commit crimes and of embezzling 15 million dollars for his former security chief Vladimiro Montesinos -- currently on trial in Peru and accused of running a vast network of corruption -- who fled to Panama.

Fujimori was elected president in June 1990, defeating internationally renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa by taking 56.5 percent of the vote. In 1992 he dissolved Congress with the support of the armed forces, which backed his hard-line policy against the guerrilla groups Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

He governed at the head of what was considered virtually a "civilian dictatorship," which trampled citizen rights in its all-out offensive against the rebel movements.

After he was reelected in April 1995 with 64.4 percent of the vote, he pushed through a constitutional amendment that enabled him to run for a third consecutive term, and went on to win the elections in 2000.

But a huge corruption scandal broke when video recordings surfaced showing Montesinos bribing officials, journalists and members of the business community, and Fujimori resigned by fax in November 2000 from Brunei, where he was taking part in a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum leaders. From there he sought refuge in Japan, where he has become a citizen.

"I don't like the fact that a brutal dictator like Fujimori is in Chile and I don't want our country to be a refuge for dictators," Congressman Guido Girardi of the Party for Democracy, which forms part of the governing center-left coalition, said on Sunday.

Michelle Bachelet, the coalition's presidential candidate, who is slated to win the Dec. 11 elections, also expressed her annoyance at Fujimori's arrival in Chile, and demanded that the police provide explanations as to why he was allowed into the country, since Interpol (the international police) issued a "red notice" for his arrest in March, thus putting him on their equivalent of a most-wanted list.

The Interpol chief in Chile, Marianela Gomez, said the red notice made it obligatory for this country to notify Peru on the fugitive's presence, but clarified that the arrest warrant could only take effect after it was processed by the courts, which occurred late Sunday.

The Toledo administration in Peru asked Chile to hand Fujimori over to Peruvian authorities, a request that was rejected by Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker, who pointed out to his Peruvian counterpart îscar Maurtua that a bilateral extradition treaty has been in effect since 1932.

Media outlets in Peru said Lagos had chosen to pursue the legal route in order to avoid the politicization of the Fujimori case in the midst of the maritime border dispute, even though the former Peruvian president's visit to Chile caused indignation among government officials.

Under Chile's new penal procedures, Fujimori's extradition trial will open with a public hearing. Afterwards, legal authorities will have five days to hand down a ruling.

The process could be short if Fujimori accepts "simplified passive extradition," which would consist of him agreeing to be sent to Peru as soon as he appears before the Supreme Court.