Peru Arrests Ex-General

Peruvian authorities Friday arrested the armed forces chief under former President Alberto Fujimori, the highest-profile figure yet detained in corruption probes of the nation's ex-spy chief, state television reported.

It was unclear what the exact charges former Gen. Jose Villanueva faced, but he has been accused of helping ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos flee the country and of being unable to justify a large income as well as houses around Lima.

Montesinos was at the center of a bribery scandal that ended in the ouster of Fujimori last month. Montesinos is reported to have escaped from Peru in October and is wanted on corruption charges.

Peruvian courts and Congress are probing links of hundreds of top generals, businessmen and judges to Montesinos, the right-hand man to Fujimori for 10 years. But so far only a few people have been detained.

The congressional commission investigating Montesinos has concluded in a report issued this week that lawmakers should lodge constitutional corruption charges against former Prime Minister Federico Salas and ex-Defense Minister Victor Malca.

Montesinos is wanted in Peru on charges from illicit arms dealing and laundering drug profits to influence peddling and directing death squads.

Peruvian authorities suspected he was in Venezuela, where unconfirmed news reports said he had undergone plastic surgery.

But Prime Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar — a former U.N. Secretary-General — said Tuesday that the former intelligence chief had the support of an "international Mafia" and investigators could not be sure of his location.

A videotape of Montesinos apparently bribing a congressman led to the scandal that toppled Fujimori, who is now in Japan.

Interim President Valentin Paniagua replaced Fujimori last month and one of his first moves was to fire dozens of officers in the military — a key power broker in this Andean nation — who could have been loyal to Montesinos.