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Once more Peru’s president Alberto Fujimori is fighting for his political life, as he was last May, when a questionable election propelled him to a controversial third term,. But what then could be seen as a tragedy—a man who had done a good job as president for ten years but couldn’t a stop himself from clinging on to power when he had worn out his welcome—is now validating Hegel’s dictum that history repeats itself as enhanced by Karl Marx, that the first time it occurs as tragedy, the second as farce.
During his decade in power, Fujimori has been the master of feint, surprise and sleight of hand. But his secret weapon whenever he was in serious difficulties was his spy chief and close ally, Vladimiro Montesinos, who built up an intimate knowledge of every Peruvian who could cause his boss trouble.
Ironically, it was Montesinos himself who caused the greatest trouble for Fujimori by his alleged involvement in organizing electoral fraud and bribing lawmakers as well as, far more serious, in what was presumed to be a major role in the transfer to the Colombian guerrilla of 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles sold by Jordan to Peru.
Forced into exile, Montesinos landed in Panama, but boomeranged back to Peru last week driven by Panamanians reluctance to grant him permanent asylum and his fear that without the protection of his Peruvian military pals—he is a former army captain—he was vulnerable to assassination attempts by other Peruvians.
The new crisis involving Montesinos lurched toward farce when President Fujimori began a highly theatrical manhunt for his former intelligence chief and close friend. In a desperate effort to redeem his image in the eyes of Washington and others, Fujimori said he would search “day and night” for his former right-hand man. But in a bizarre twist to an often surreal drama, the president said he wanted to find his disgraced top aide “for his own safety”—not to arrest him.
Racing around the capital in a leather jacket in the midst of a motorcade, shouting orders through a megaphone, surrounded by police with sniffer dogs, with his search for Montesinos, Fujimori appeared to be making a desperate effort to redeem his image in the eyes of Washington and others.
Farcical as it may have been (there were even those who said Fujimori was looking for his old spy chief where he knew he wouldn’t find him), the Montesinos hunt has won the president plaudits from both the opposition and the international community and strengthened his position. It was more than coincidence that the search was played out during the visit of Cesar Gaviria, the head of the Organization of American States, who hours earlier held “tough, tense” talks with Fujimori. OAS pressure also seemed to have forced the government to drop its bid to tie the new elections to an amnesty for security forces, one that would have covered Montesinos. At OAS-sponsored talks last Wednesday, the government and the opposition agreed on April 8 as the date for the new elections to which Fujimori, in a surprise move, had called a few weeks ago and in which he said he would not be a candidate.
By the weekend Fujimori had moved to regain power by disentangling a web of military influence crafted by his former spy chief, replacing the top commanders of Peru’s army, navy and air force, all of whom were believed to be loyal to Montesinos.
While this was going on in Lima, to add to the confusion more than 50 soldiers led by a middle-ranking commander vowing to “safeguard the honor of the army” and refusing to recognize the authority of President Fujimori, took over a strategic mining town in southern Peru and blocked access in or out—but no real importance was assigned to this sidebar, which was not, as some believed initially, a prelude to a major rebellion by the armed forces. Indeed, in an official statement, the army condemned the uprising as “a serious situation of indiscipline” and said it would take “appropriate action to put an end to this activity and safeguard the social and political stability of the country.”
Meanwhile, praise for the president was coming from the most unlikely sources. Lima Mayor Alberto Andrade, whose distrust of Fujimori is no secret, said he was surprised by how fast Fujimori has turned the tide of his seemingly sinking government. Even former opposition presidential candidate Alejandro Toledo, who has been clamoring for weeks for the president’s immediate resignation, told a rally of supporters that Fujimori had taken “an important step to re-establish the credibility and the political strength of Peru.”
Nevertheless, there are many who contend that Montesino’s continued military influence will keep him out of the president’s grasp. That is, if he really wants to find him. There are those who say that, by searching so ostentatiously for Montesinos, Fujimori could help him to be painted as a victim of persecution who should be granted political asylum abroad. Venezuela, which is ruled by a former army colonel, has been mentioned as a possibility.
The situation in Peru is far from settled and nobody knows for sure what forces are at work within the military. But once again Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, can be expected to deal with any new contingency with the uncanny talent he has shown for the most bizarre—and successful—machinations, a talent he must have inherited from some distant shogun ancestor.
Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com