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Peru Spy Chief Fate Hangs; Panama Rejects Asylum
Panama on Saturday refused a Peruvian government request to grant political asylum to disgraced spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, leaving the government hunting for alternatives to decide his fate before a Monday deadline.
"After studying the asylum request, an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet recommended not to accept the request," Panama's presidential palace said in a statement.
The denial apparently closed one avenue for Peru as it struggles to resolve the fate of the spy chief embroiled in a corruption scandal that has forced President Alberto Fujimori to announce early elections in which he will not run.
As the clock ticked, Brazil and Argentina also reportedly made clear Montesinos would not be welcome. Some political analysts said Cuba might consider taking him in.
Panama said Peruvian Prime Minister Federico Salas telephoned to request asylum for Montesinos on Friday night.
Panamanian foreign policy director Alfredo Castillero said that Panama turned it down because it opposed "authoritarianism, fraud, irregularity and corruption, not just at the national level, but internationally."
On Friday, Peru's government and opposition parties agreed at talks brokered by the Organisation of American States (OAS) that the government should make formal Montesinos' departure from all public functions by Monday morning.
That deal to determine the spymaster's fate spelled the start of national reconciliation, Peter Boehm, Canada's ambassador to the OAS, told reporters in an interview.
Boehm did not rule out that Montesinos could be spirited out of Peru.
"It is a possibility," he said.
"What everyone wants here is a clear, quick and sharp solution," said one diplomatic source.
Montesinos, 56, is widely believed to have been the power behind Fujimori and his bridgehead to the military.
From his command of the national intelligence service (SIN), the former army captain -- sent packing in the 1970s amid charges he spied for the CIA -- crammed the military elite with his cronies.
Overshadowed by allegations of corruption and human rights abuses, he turned the SIN into a "big brother" capable of wiretapping and torture with apparent impunity.
"They've got no option, they've got to get him out by Monday," said political analyst Fernando Rospigliosi. "They don't want a trial. That could implicate Fujimori and others in the government."
PERU TO TAKE NEW TACK AS OPTIONS DWINDLE
Rospigliosi noted that the tangled case of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in Britain in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to extradite him to Spain on charges of crimes against humanity, complicated Peru's options.
"After Pinochet, no one wants him," he said of Montesinos.
Political commentator Fernando Tuesta Soldevilla said the government was now likely to try to turn the situation around to boost chances of securing an exit for a man analysts say could be a major political liability if he told all he knew.
"They're going to argue that Montesinos played a key role in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking and that without protection, his life would be in danger," he said.
Fujimori, who won a May presidential runoff boycotted by the opposition and widely criticised as flawed, has defended Montesinos in such terms and said he is under protection.
Montesinos, national security adviser and key aide to Fujimori during his decade in power, plunged Peru into crisis when a videotape was aired on television showing him allegedly bribing an opposition congressman to switch sides.
Fujimori, Latin America's longest-serving elected leader, responded with the surprise announcement that he was calling the elections -- probably in March -- and disbanding the SIN.
Montesinos has been invisible since the scandal broke.
The Fujimori-Montesinos split sparked fears of a coup amid questions over where the loyalties of the armed forces lay.
The armed forces on Thursday issued a statement of support for Fujimori, but political analysts said they still believed Montesinos commanded more influence in the military than the president, making negotiations on his fate delicate.
Analysts saw three scenarios: the spy chief is bundled out of the country; the armed forces cut a deal with the government to betray their former leader in return for amnesty for themselves; or junior military officials rise up to overthrow top brass loyal to Montesinos.
In another sign of mounting tension, Economy Minster Carlos Bolona cancelled a trip to the International Monetary Fund annual meeting in Prague, officials said.
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