Peru Awaits Fallout From Military Uprising Against Fujimori

The country’s military said a mutiny of soldiers against President Alberto Fujimori was all but over Monday, even as the nation awaited fallout from the armed insurrection challenging the president’s authority.

The army said it rounded up more than 40 soldiers and civilians who were involved in the uprising in the remote southern Andes.

The revolt, which reportedly involved 51 soldiers, demanded Fujimori’s ouster and imprisonment of his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Eight soldiers remained at large, the army said, including a colonel and his brother, a former major, who led the uprising.

The army said it rescued the soldiers who had been forced to take part in the rebellion and captured those who did not surrender. Troops also rescued a brigadier general who was taken hostage.

While military experts and political leaders agree there is little chance the uprising will spark a larger military rebellion, many say they share the rebel soldiers’ disgust with Fujimori’s regime.

“This can be seen as a message that the president and the government cannot ignore,” retired army Gen. Daniel Mora said.

Expressing disgust with Fujimori and the continued influence of Montesinos, the soldiers seized, then abandoned, a southern copper mine before dawn Sunday, took the general and four workers hostage and then fled north into the frigid Andes.

Southern Peru Copper Corp. said the four employees were released near Lake Suches, 25 miles northeast of where the rebellion started.

Peru has been in turmoil since the mid-September release of a video showing Montesinos apparently bribing a congressman to support Fujimori. Fujimori said he would step down after new elections.