/ 7 November 2005

Former Peruvian leader arrested in Chile

Fugitive former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, wanted in Peru on corruption and human rights charges, was arrested early on Monday just hours after his surprise arrival in Chile, police said.

Fujimori was detained on an arrest warrant issued by Judge Orlando Alvarez, who was tapped by Chile’s Supreme Court to weigh Lima’s request for Fujimori’s extradition lodged hours earlier.

Police picked up the former president at the Marriott hotel in Santiago, and he gave no resistance, police sources said.

Fujimori, who is 67, arrived on Sunday unannounced in Chile to press on defiantly in a fresh bid for the Peruvian presidency.

”I plan a temporary stay in Chile as part of a return to Peru to keep a promise with a large part of the people of Peru that has called me to participate as a candidate for the presidency of Peru in the 2006 election,” Fujimori said in a statement before his arrest.

Peru’s presidential election is set for April 9 next year.

Justice Minister Alejandro Tudela has slammed Fujimori’s electoral plans as ”a challenge to the rule of law and Peruvian sovereignty”. Lawmakers in Peru have barred Fujimori from seeking public office until 2010.

Police said Fujimori will be held pending a decision on the Peruvian extradition request. After his private plane from Tokyo made a brief stopover in Mexico, Fujimori arrived with a tourist visa and headed for his hotel.

Japan refused to extradite him to Lima because Fujimori, the son of Japanese emigrants to Peru, holds Japanese nationality.

Japan’s conservative Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said on Monday that the government, which had welcomed Fujimori in 2000, only knew of his departure through media reports.

Government ‘concerned’

In Lima, President Alejandro Toledo convened an emergency meeting of the Cabinet to discuss the situation.

”One cannot put it any other way: the government is concerned,” said Gustavo Pacheco, chairperson of the congressional Foreign Relations Commission.

Peru’s ambassador in Santiago, Jose Antonio Meyer, had swiftly delivered an official note to the Chilean government seeking ”the detention and eventual extradition of fugitive from Peruvian justice Alberto Fujimori”, Peru’s chief of staff, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, announced in Lima.

About 1 500 people rallied in support of Fujimori in Lima; a video played at the event also made clear Fujimori’s desire to seek re-election. But outside the Chilean ambassador’s residence, anti-Fujimori demonstrators chanted ”Chilean brothers, hand over the thief” and ”Toss out the rat”.

Fujimori was Peru’s president from 1990 until 2000, when he fled the country under a massive cloud of scandal and resigned by fax from a Tokyo hotel. He has lived in Japan since.

He faces about 20 legal cases in Peruvian courts, but has been a fugitive since his government collapsed.

Sensitive moment

Fujimori arrived in Chile at a sensitive moment as the two countries haggle over a maritime border dispute. On Friday, Peru’s legislature passed a Bill claiming a larger part of rich Pacific Ocean fishing waters as its own, and Toledo signed it into law, to take effect over the weekend.

Chile has expressed its opposition to losing about 35 000 square kilometres of prime fishing waters and said its military will continue to patrol the area.

”Fujimori’s lawyers suggested he enter through Chile to take advantage of a conflict between the two countries over the maritime border,” said Peruvian legislator Alcides Chamorro, speaking in Lima.

A Chilean presidential source acknowledged privately that ”he took us by surprise; we are at a very delicate point in the search for a diplomatic solution to our differences with Peru”.

Former Peruvian legislative speaker Antero Flores-Araoz called Fujimori’s move ”defiant and provocative”.

However, Martha Chavez, former legislator and head of a pro-Fujimori group in Lima, was ”enormously pleased that the president was so close to Peru”.

Lima also had asked Interpol to arrest Fujimori in connection with crimes during his presidency, the murders of opponents and a payment of $15-million to his spy master, Vladimiro Montesinos, already imprisoned for corruption in Peru. — Sapa-AFP