Peru Government Officials

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in Toronto this weekend to discuss the crisis here at the Japanese ambassador's residence where rebels hold 72 hostages, officials said Wednesday.

This nation's true-life soap opera, a saga of bribes, lies and videotape, has finally gone into reruns. The intelligence chief who blackmailed much of the Peruvian political elite with secretly recorded tapes is completing his ninth month behind bars. Democracy is flowering again--which means angry crowds are free to take to the streets nearly every working day to demand jobs and food.

President Alberto Fujimori gave his army and police special arrest and search powers by declaring a state of emergency in Lima on Friday, seeking to strengthen his position as a face-off with guerrillas holding more than 100 VIP hostages moved into its 11th day. Fujimori's action was the latest thrust in a diplomatic duel with Tupac Amaru rebels occupying the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. Peru's Congress voted Friday to support Fujimori's policy of not negotiating with the rebels.

A judge issued an international arrest warrant Thursday for disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori over his alleged role in two death-squad massacres in the early 1990s, a court spokeswoman said Thursday. Peru hopes the warrant will pave the way for Fujimori's eventual extradition from Japan. He has been in exile there since his 10-year government collapsed in November under mounting corruption scandals.

In 1992, when an attempted military coup caused President Alberto Fujimori to flee the presidential palace, he reportedly took refuge at the Japanese ambassador's residence. The coup failed, but Fujimori's choice of sanctuary--reported back then by the respected magazine Caretas--reflected the special bond between Peru and Japan.

Alejandro Toledo, Peru's first freely elected president of Indian descent, was sworn in to office Saturday, promising to remain true to his roots and govern for the nation's poor. Toledo's assumption of the presidency seals the former shoeshine boy's remarkable rise and completes Peru's return to democracy after a decade of authoritarian rule by disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.

Leftist guerrillas stormed the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Peru during a reception Tuesday night, taking hundreds of hostages, including the diplomat, Peru's foreign minister, several Latin American envoys and Peruvian legislative leaders. As many as 30 guerrillas armed with automatic weapons and explosives remained barricaded inside the residence in an upscale coastal neighborhood of Lima late Tuesday night, surrounded by police and soldiers.

Peruvian Defense Minister Julio Velasquez Giacarini submitted his resignation five days after his predecessor was shot to death at a Lima shopping center, official sources said. President Alan Garcia had not decided whether to accept the resignation, the sources said. Gunmen believed to be leftist guerrillas killed then-Defense Minister Enrique Lopez Albujar on Tuesday. The attack brought fresh criticism of Garcia's handling of the nation's growing leftist uprising.

Suspected Marxist rebels Thursday tried to assassinate a key economic adviser who helped mastermind Peruvian President Alan Garcia's plan to nationalize private banks. The aide, Daniel Carbonetto, was unhurt in the attack at his home, but both gunmen were wounded by his bodyguard, police said.

Commandos stormed the diplomatic compound Tuesday where leftist rebels were holding 72 captives, ending Latin America's longest such standoff with a daring daylight attack that liberated 71 hostages and left one dead, along with two soldiers and all the rebels. The raid by 140 commandos of the Peruvian marines, navy and army began at 3:20 p.m. at the residence of the Japanese ambassador.

A Supreme Court judge in Peru declared disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori a fugitive and issued an international order for his arrest to face charges of abandonment of office and dereliction of duty. Judge Jose Luis Lecaros issued the order after Fujimori, who fled to his parents' native Japan in November, failed to appear for scheduled court hearings.

Alejandro Toledo, Peru's first freely elected president of Indian descent, was sworn in to office Saturday, promising to remain true to his roots and govern for the nation's poor. Toledo's assumption of the presidency seals the former shoeshine boy's remarkable rise and completes Peru's return to democracy after a decade of authoritarian rule by disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.

Peruvian President-elect Alejandro Toledo named an international corporate lawyer, Roberto Danino, to be his prime minister in a move that analysts said could mean a shift to the right. Toledo, who takes office Saturday, has already named respected banker and fund manager Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to be his economy minister. Among other top appointments were Diego Garcia Sayan, the justice minister in Peru's outgoing interim government, as foreign minister, and Fernando Olivera as justice minister.

Jailed former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos told an anti-corruption judge that he followed direct orders from former President Alberto Fujimori when he allegedly bribed at least 10 lawmakers, Peru's Congress said Saturday. Congress released a sworn statement Montesinos made to Judge Saul Pena Farfan, in which Montesinos said he doled out tens of thousands of dollars, "following orders from President Fujimori to obtain a congressional majority."

Peru's captured former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who could be jailed for life on charges ranging from embezzlement to murder, is itching to talk, a senior judge who has questioned him said Wednesday. Peruvians braced for more explosive revelations from the man at the center of the massive corruption scandal that brought down President Alberto Fujimori after Montesinos revealed Tuesday that he had an additional 30,000 secret videos up his sleeve.

A Peruvian police plane returned former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos to his native land as a prisoner Monday, ending an eight-month, U.S.-aided manhunt and opening a new, uncertain chapter in this country's history. Wearing bluejeans and a beige shirt, Montesinos was immediately escorted to Peru's central jail, where he faced questioning on charges ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking to human rights violations.

President Alberto Fujimori, on a trip to Asia and Los Angeles, has been portraying his country as a paragon of democratic progress. But many Peruvians have a darker view. Unsolved cases of human rights violations, unrest in the army and limitations on the autonomy of Congress are raising doubts about the future of democracy in Peru. Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, spent this past week in Japan and South Korea, hoping to drum up new aid, trade and investment.

The BCCI scandal has blown up a roaring political storm in Peru, where opponents of former President Alan Garcia are attempting to link him to bribes allegedly paid in exchange for official Peruvian deposits of $270 million in the bank. At a news conference Wednesday, Garcia called a congressional committee's investigation of his finances "a scandalous witch hunt," and he denied that he had anything to do with the Bank of Credit & Commerce International or any bribes.

A Peruvian congressional committee accused the new armed forces chief of involvement in an irregular arms deal. In a final report after a seven-month investigation, the panel accused Gen. Miguel Medina of falsifying information about the 1996 purchase of Russian MIG-29 jets. Irregularities in the purchase generated an $80-million kickback, the report said. Medina allegedly said the jets were newer than they were.

In the final days of the campaign, Alejandro Toledo could feel it. His noisy red bus chugged toward victory through a spectral landscape of sand and fog, entering the fishing villages north of Lima in a tumult of horsemen in white, youths running alongside in folkloric demon masks, dogs baying on the rooftops.