Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on Friday downplayed the role a former spymaster accused of organizing a death squad played in his government, saying he never ceded power to Vladimiro Montesinos.
On the third day of Fujimori's trial for murder and kidnapping, prosecutors sought to demonstrate a close relationship between the former president and Montesinos, the feared intelligence chief and reputed powerbroker behind Fujimori's autocratic regime.
"I want to make clear that he did not co-govern with Alberto Fujimori," the former president said, visibly irritated by the prosecution's suggestion of Montesinos' power. "I never ceded an important part of power. I continued to be the supreme chief of the armed forces."
PHOTO: AP
Fujimori, 69, is on trial for charges stemming from his alleged use of the Colina death squad to fight a bloody Maoist insurgency during his government, which was in power from 1990 to 2000. Fujimori has denied that he authorized a Montesinos-led dirty war against the rebels.
Fujimori fled to Japan as his government collapsed amid a corruption scandal involving Montesinos. But in 2005 the former president flew to Chile in an apparent attempt to return to politics in Peru. Chile, however, extradited him to Peru in September.
On Friday, Assistant Prosecutor Avelino Guillen sought to demonstrate Fujimori's heavy dependence on Montesinos in matters involving the military. Fujimori was often evasive in his answers, but rejected outright that he and Montesinos had co-governed.
"We are trying to prove that Mr Montesinos actively participated at the decision-making level of the Colina group," Guillen said, defending his line of questioning when challenged by Fujimori's defense attorney Cesar Nakazaki.
Fujimori said he "knew no one in military circles" when he came to power. But he said he did not rely solely on Montesinos, a cashiered army captain, to run the armed forces, seeking to undercut the popular perception that Montesinos manipulated Fujimori through the information he fed him or withheld.
Fujimori said he personally designed his anti-rebel strategy, which he described as based on close cooperation with peasants.
Montesinos is being held at a high-security prison on a navy base in the adjoining port of Callao.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home