Fringe left candidate is Cuba's pawn, says former Peru spy boss

Fringe left candidate is Cuba's pawn, says former Peru spy boss
By Monte Hayes
The Associated Press

June 1, 2006

LIMA, Peru · Jumping into Peru's election fray, jailed former spy chief
Vladimiro Montesinos has alleged in a booklet apparently written in
prison that presidential candidate Ollanta Humala is a pawn of Cuban and
Venezuelan intelligence.

The timing of the book, five days before the runoff, raised suspicions
that it's part of the dirty campaigning by Humala and his opponent,
former President Alan Garcia.

But several intelligence experts say Montesinos, the spymaster in
President Alberto Fujimori's 1990-2000 regime who was captured in
Venezuela in 2001 and is being tried on dozens of criminal charges, may
simply want to become a political player again.

The 37-page booklet, entitled Chess Pawn, alleges that Cuba's President
Fidel Castro and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez want to use Humala, a
left-leaning nationalist, as part of a strategy to reduce U.S. influence
in Latin America.

"Therefore, it is necessary to warn that when Ollanta Humala surges onto
the Peruvian political scene with a radical and violent anti-system
message, he does it as a spokesman for the Cuban-Venezuela strategy,
which constitutes a serious threat to democracy in Peru and a danger for
regional security," Montesinos wrote.

His attorney, Estela Valdivia, confirmed that Montesinos was the author.

Fernando Rospigliosi, a former interior minister and head of
intelligence in the current government of President Alejandro Toledo,
said Montesinos was simply repeating what Humala's foes have claimed.

"He wants to be a player in Peruvian politics. That much is clear,"
Rospigliosi said. "He has been relegated all this time and now he wants
to show his head and say something. And to a certain point he has
managed to get publicity in the media."

Rospigliosi said the booklet might also be a ploy to permit Humala to
play the victim. That was the tack he took in response to another recent
Montesinos allegation: that Humala helped Montesinos escape from Peru by
staging a fake military rebellion.

Humala, a retired army lieutenant colonel strongly supported by Chavez,
launched his political career by leading the short-lived military
uprising in October 2000 against Fujimori.

Humala angrily accused Montesinos on Tuesday of working with Garcia's
center-left Aprista party.

"I think it's a sign of desperation by Garcia to use Montesinos," Humala
said.

On a campaign swing in Piura, Humala accused Garcia of promising amnesty
to Fujimori, who is in Chile battling extradition, in return for
Fujimori's support. In a radio interview, he called Garcia "a scoundrel,
a demagogue, a populist and irresponsible."

Garcia responded by calling him a "bully" and "a dog that barks but
doesn't bite" -- dismissing growing concerns that Humala might launch
violent street protests if he loses the election.

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