Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos Torres (born on May 20, 1945) was the long-time head of Peru's intelligence service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, or "SIN") under President Alberto Fujimori.

Early Career

In 1965 he took the Cadet Course at the School of the Americas.

In 1976 Montesinos was tried in Peruvian tribunals and was dishonorably discharged from the Peruvian army, for photocopying and giving to the CIA a series of secret documents about the situation of the Peruvian armed forces. His discharge "resolution" was #N°0552-76 GU/DP dated October 6, 1976. In it, it is mentioned that Montesinos traveled to the USA without authorization of the army command, and fraudulently created a military document required to travel. He furthermore visited several foreign institutions representing the Peruvian army, but without authorization of it. At the time of his discharge, he was an army artillery captain. He was soon sentenced to a military prison.

In February of 1978 Montesinos was freed after serving 2 years in a military prison. At that time, his first cousin, the lawyer Sergio Cardenal Montesinos, gave him work at his law office and insisted Montesinos finish his law studies. In April of the same year, Montesinos registered in the San Marcos University (UNMSM). On July 24, only 3 months after registering, Montesinos received a false professional title of lawyer from such University. Then, on August 15, using his false title he registered as lawyer in the Superior Court of Lima. Ten days later, on August 25, he became a member of the Lima Lawyers Association (Colegio de Abogados de Lima).

Montesinos soon became known as a major contact of Colombian Drug-Traffickers in Peru. He became the official lawyer of several Drug-Trafficers and also their "trusted" man. For example, in 1979 he signed as a guarantor of the rent contract of a couple offices/warehouses used by the Colombian Jaime Tamayo Tamayo, in which Cocaine producing labs were established and were later raided by the Police.

In 1984 the "Doctor" (as he liked others to call him) sold classified information about Peru to the Ecuatorian Army. The information contained the complete listings of all weapons that Peru had purchased from the USSR.

Death Squad Years

Vladimiro Montesinos was appointed head of the SIN after Fujimori was elected president on July 28, 1990. It is said that he was the "power behind the throne" in Peruvian politics from 1990 to 2000. Nominally, Montesinos was President Fujimori's advisor to the National Intelligence Service. One report described Montesinos as Fujimori's "most trusted counselor".

It is believed that Montesinos ran the death squad known as the Colina Group, which was a part of the National Intelligence Service, and was probably responsible for the disappearance of nine students and a professor from La Cantuta university on July 18, 1992. Four officers who were tortured after plotting a coup d'état against Fujimori in November 1992 stated that Montesinos took an active part in torturing them.

In 1996 Montesinos was accused of being a protector of drug trafficers by his accomplice Demetrio Chávez Peñaherrera, known as "El Vaticano". In a drug trafficking trial on August 16 of that year, Chávez Peñaherrera stated that he had bribed members of the Peruvian Armed Forces and had also paid Montesinos, as the effective chief of the Peruvian Intelligence Service (SIN) to be able to operate freely in Campanilla, a jungle area of the Huallaga region. The bribe was set at US$50,000 per month and was paid many months in 1991 and 1992. As proof, in the trial were presented recordings of radio communications between drug trafficers of Chávez's organization and members of the Armed Forces. The recording showed that members of the army had let his organization operate freely in the Hallaga region, in exchange for the bribe. During certain appearances in the court, Chávez appeared drugged and maybe tortured. After sentencing, while in prison, Chávez talked to the press and revealed that Montesinos mentioned to him at one point that he "did some work" with Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín Cartel. He also mentioned that the ex-president of the Armed Forces Joined Command, retired general Nicolás de Bari Hermoza, and the ex-President Alberto Fujimori, had both complete knowledge of the illicit acts of Montesinos.

Downfall

In 2000 he fled to Venezuela after an incriminating video aired on national TV showing him giving a cash bribe to an opposition leader in exchange for political support. This video was the first of many "Vladi-Videos" shown to the public over several months that year. The ensuing scandal contributed to the overthrow of Fujimori's presidency. Later Montesinos was alleged to have given the order to execute 13 rebels who surrendered peacefully after commandos stormed the Japanese embassy in Lima during a hostage crisis.

One of Montesinos's videos shows the owners of Channel 2 being offered USD $500,000 a month to ban appearances of the political opposition on their channel. Another video shows Channel 4 owners getting $1.5 million a month for similar cooperation. Another video shows Montesinos counting out $350,000 in cash to Channel 5's proprietor. The owner of Channel 9 owner received $50,000 to cancel a bothersome investigative series called Uncensored ("Sin censura"), directed by Cecilia Valenzuela. By the end of 1999, Montesinos had editorial control over Channels 2, 4, 5, 9, and 13. Channel 7 was already state-owned. One of the country's two cable channels, Channel 10 had been secretly purchased for the armed forces. That left just one independent station in Peru: Channel N, a twenty-four-hour cable news outlet that reached barely 5% of the population.

In June 2001, the Venezuelan government arrested Montesinos in Caracas and turned him over to Peruvian authorities who proceeded with his extradition to Peru. He is currently on trial in Lima on corruption and racketeering charges.

Montesinos was also accused of involvement in the smuggling of 10,000 rifles from Jordan to members of the Colombian rebel group FARC.

Trial

Declassified CIA documents released in 2000 and 2001 described payments made to Montesinos by the CIA. They along with similar DEA documents seemed to deflect responsibility from President Fujimori, describing him more as a puppet of Montesinos rather than a true power broker. But Montesinos has denied accepting payments from the CIA.

As of 2004, Montesinos is imprisoned at the Callao naval base and is facing 63 charges that range from drug trafficking to murder. His lengthy trial in Lima is revealing the breadth and depth of corruption under the Fujimori regime. One notable example is the purchase of a few old fighter planes from an East European country, for which the Peruvian Government paid USD $800 Million, though the actual cost of the planes is said to have been only around $100 Million. He has already been found guilty of embezzlement, illegally assuming his post as intelligence chief, abuse of power, influence peddling and bribing TV stations. Those carry sentences of 8, 9, 5, 5, and 15 years, respectively, but Peruvian prison sentences are served concurrently, so prosecutors continue to pursue him on the more serious charges. He has also been found not guilty on two specific charges of corruption and conspiracy related to the mayor of Callao who he was alledged to have helped evade drug trafficing charges.

In August 2004, U.S. officials returned USD $20 million to the Peruvian Government. The funds were embezzled by Montesinos and had been deposited in U.S. banks by two men working for him. Peruvian Prime Minister Carlos Ferrero and other Peruvian prosecutors believe that the total loot taken by Montesinos during his tenure atop the Peruvian National Intelligence Service surpassed $1 billion U.S. dollars, most of which was sent away from the country and deposited in Foreign Banks.

In November 2004 Wilmer Yarleque Ordinola, an alledged member of Mentesino's Colina group death squad was apprehended in a Virginia. He stands accused in 26 of the 7,260[1] (http://peru.com/noticias/idocs/2003/8/29/DetalleDocumento_97139.asp) deaths or disappearances attributed to the Colina Group, and is expected to be extradited to Peru soon.

Miscellanea

Official Personal Information as indicated in Montesinos official documents:

1. Voter's registration card (LE) No. 25199645

2. National Identity Document (DNI) No. 09296012

3. Date of birth: May 20, 1945

4. Place of birth: Arequipa, Peru

5. Hair color: Black

6. Eye color: Black

7. Build: Medium

External links

• Army Played 'A Key Role' In Departure Of Fujimori, Intelligence Service Scandals Rankled Peruvian Military, By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post Foreign Service, Monday, September 18, 2000; Page A01 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A25128-2000Sep17&notFound=true)
• Borron y Manchas Nuevas, Documentos de inteligencia norteamericanos sobre Montesinos, Revista Caretas - Peru (http://www.caretas.com.pe/1464/borron/borron.htm)
• Bribes, Lies, and Videotape in Peru, February 2, 2001, Businessweek (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2001/nf2001022_371.htm)
• CIA Gave $10 Million to Peru's Ex-Spymaster Angel Paez, The Public i, July 3, 2001 (http://www.alternet.org/story/11131)
• Declassified United States NSA documents about Montesinos (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB37/index2.html)
• Gallery of Peruvian Torturers and Killers, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres (http://www.desaparecidos.org/peru/tort/montesinos/eng.html)
• How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru by John McMillan and Pablo Zoido (March 2004, 32 pages) (http://www.stanford.edu/~mcken/seminar/mcmillan.pdf)
• Kevin G. Hall, San Jose Mercury News (CA), Tue, 24 Apr 2001 (http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n718/a09.html?5880)
• Montesinos, Fujimori, Toledo and Peru's future, biography and analysis, Article added on November 10, 2000 (http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo11/peru.htm)
• Peru, the disintegration of the Fujimori regime, By Bill Vann, 21 September 2000, World Socialist Web Site (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/sep2000/peru-s21.shtml)
• The Betrayal of Peru's Democracy: Montesinos as Fujimori's Svengali, Covert Action Quarterly -- Summer 1994, by Gustavo Gorriti (http://www.freelori.org/news/94summer_covertactionquarterly.html)
• 'The Doctor' Divided U.S. Officials, CIA Defended Peruvian Against Human-Rights Accusations, Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2000 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A54330-2000Sep21&notFound=true)
• Montesinos: The end of the road; BBC News; Sunday, 24 June, 2001, 16:57 GMT 17:57 UK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1405548.stm)
• The Meaning of Montesinos, Gustavo Gorriti, Peruvian Journalist, Monday, December 18, 2000 at 1 p.m. EST (http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/00/gorriti1218.htm)
• Videomania, Feb 8th 2001, Lima, From The Economist print edition (http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=498799)