Global InformationVladimiro Montesinos information
Director Vladimiro Montesinos | |
|---|---|
 Montesinos in 2023 | |
| 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.
- ^ • McMillan, John; Zoido, Pablo (Autumn 2004). "How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru". The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 18 (4): 69. doi:10.1257/0895330042632690. hdl:10419/76612. S2CID 219372153.
In the 1990s, Peru was run ... by its secret-police chief, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres.
- Vargas Llosa, Mario (27 March 1994). "Ideas & Trends: In His Words; Unmasking the Killers in Peru Won't Bring Democracy Back to Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
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.
- "Spymaster". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. August 2002. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
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.
- Keller, Paul (26 October 2000). "Fujimori in OAS talks PERU CRISIS UNCERTAINTY DEEPENS AFTER RETURN OF EX-SPY CHIEF". Financial Times.
Mr Montesinos ... and his military faction, ... for the moment, has chosen to keep Mr Fujimori as its civilian figurehead
- "THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN THE ANDES" (PDF). Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 2001. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
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
- "Questions And Answers: Mario Vargas Llosa". Newsweek. 9 January 2001. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
Fujimori became a kind of, well, a figurehead
- Vargas Llosa, Mario (27 March 1994). "Ideas & Trends: In His Words; Unmasking the Killers in Peru Won't Bring Democracy Back to Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
- ^ "Who is Controlling Whom?" (PDF). United States Army Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center. 23 October 1990.
- ^ McMillan, John; Zoido, Pablo (Autumn 2004). "How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru". The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 18 (4): 69–92. doi:10.1257/0895330042632690. hdl:10419/76612. S2CID 219372153.
- ^ "CIA Gave $10 Million to Peru's Ex-Spymaster Montesinos, Center for Public Integrity, 18 July 2001. Accessed online 15 October 2019
- ^ Hall, Kevin G. (3 August 2001). "CIA Paid Millions to Montesinos". The Miami Herald. Miami. p. 1.
- ^ Alfredo Schulte-Bockholt (2006). "Chapter 5: Elites, Cocaine, and Power in Colombia and Peru". The politics of organized crime and the organized crime of politics: a study in criminal power. Lexington Books. pp. 114–118. ISBN 978-0-7391-1358-5.
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
- ^ Rendón, Silvio (2013). La intervención de los Estados Unidos en el Perú. Editorial Sur. pp. 145–150. ISBN 9786124574139.
- ^ "Spymaster". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. August 2002. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
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.