Amid Rumors of Coup, Fujimori Seeks U.S. Help

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori took a hastily arranged trip to Washington on Thursday to appeal for international support for his troubled regime and his plan to remain in office until new elections are held next year.

With rumors of a planned military coup swirling in Lima, Peru’s capital, Fujimori conferred with Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States. He was scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today.

After months of ignoring U.S. and OAS criticism over securing a constitutionally dubious third term as president amid accusations of electoral fraud, Fujimori has said he is ready to relinquish power. Stunned by a bribery scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos, his former intelligence chief, Fujimori announced Sept. 16 that he will step down after new elections next year in which he will not be a candidate.

By publicly backing Fujimori’s plan to relinquish power next year, U.S. and OAS officials said they hope to dampen talk of a military takeover in Peru. But it is not clear whether Fujimori will be able to maintain his increasingly shaky grip on power, no matter how much outside diplomatic assistance he receives.

A delegation of OAS officials seeking to broker a restoration of democracy has been in Lima since before the president’s surprise call for new elections. The OAS is a regional organization that includes all nations in the Western Hemisphere, although Cuba’s membership has been suspended.

State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Thursday that Albright and other Clinton administration officials will tell Fujimori that Washington supports “a peaceful, democratic and constitutional transition of power” as well as “the continuation of that OAS dialogue.”

Fujimori has “suddenly become an OAS convert,” said another State Department official, who asked not to be identified, probably because the allusion to the Peruvian leader’s earlier defiance of the OAS could be seen as undiplomatic.

Fujimori’s autocratic regime crumbled after Montesinos--the head of Peru’s feared National Intelligence Service, or SIN, and once the major power behind the presidency--was videotaped apparently bribing an opposition member of Peru’s Congress. Fujimori fired Montesinos and ordered his organization disbanded. On Sunday, the former intelligence chief fled to Panama, which reluctantly, but with U.S. encouragement, gave him temporary refuge.

The departure of Montesinos diminished his power but did not obliterate it. His allies still fill many sensitive posts in Fujimori’s government, especially in the military.

Peruvian leaders and foreign diplomats worry that Montesinos is trying to destabilize the government from his Panamanian exile with what remains of an intelligence apparatus that long controlled the military, justice system, media and legislators. It is hard to be sure where Montesinos’ influence ends and paranoia begins, but there are concrete signs of a campaign against the Peruvian president.

Ten members of Congress, most of them linked to Montesinos, have deserted the ruling party in recent days and denied Fujimori his legislative majority. Armed forces chiefs on Wednesday denied accusations by a lawmaker who said he was pressured into resigning as part of a plot to spread chaos and justify a coup.

In addition, a rare transportation strike snarling the streets of Peru is blamed at least partly on allies of the spy chief who own transport companies. Even Peru’s lurid tabloid press, widely regarded as an instrument of the SIN, has attacked Fujimori for the first time in recent memory. Headlines this week blared, “Nation Paralyzed.”

“It appears that Montesinos is trying to sabotage Fujimori from Panama,” said Raul Gonzalez, a sociologist and an expert on the Peruvian security forces.

In a positive sign Thursday afternoon, however, Peru’s Congress voted unanimously to approve a law dismantling the intell igence service.

Fujimori’s trip to Washington was seen as a calculated statement of self-confidence. Peruvian observers believe that during the meetings with U.S. and Latin American diplomats, he will discuss plans for reforming democratic institutions in preparation for the new elections.

Reeker confirmed that the U.S. and other hemisphere governments had urged Panama to give Montesinos refuge to get the former spy chief out of Peru and help defuse the crisis.

Panama has not yet decided whether to give Montesinos permanent residency. Fujimori was believed to be urging the U.S. and OAS to exert pressure on Panama to allow Montesinos to remain there. But Reeker said Washington is reluctant to go that far.

“The issue of political asylum is one which the government of Panama must determine,” Reeker said. He added that the U.S. government does not advocate immunity from prosecution for Montesinos, leaving the door open for Peru to seek his extradition once the political situation becomes clear. Montesinos could still face charges in Peru despite a prosecutor’s decision this week that outraged his countrymen. Though the videotape showed him handing a lawmaker $15,000, prosecutors said the act was not a crime because the former spy chief supposedly used his own money and the congressman had not yet taken office.

A Madrid radio station reported that the Spanish government has offered to help Montesinos find refuge in North Africa, possibly Morocco.

Fujimori, Latin America’s longest-serving elected leader in recent history, has had a close but increasingly problematic relationship with the United States. During the past decade, Washington hailed him for defeating terrorism, scoring victories in the war on drugs, and enacting free-market reforms in a nation that was on the verge of anarchy when he was first elected in 1990.

Even as complaints increased about his regime’s authoritarianism, personified by Montesinos, U.S. diplomats emphasized Peru’s stability and cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies and security forces in the lawless Andean region.

U.S. criticism of this year’s troubled Peruvian presidential election brought relations with Fujimori to their lowest point, but the president’s dramatic decision to relinquish power has regained him a degree of U.S. support.

*

Kempster reported from Washington and Rotella from Lima.