Mr Vladimiro Montesinos, the former secret police chief at the centre of the corruption scandal that prompted President Alberto Fujimori to call new elections, has fled Peru and arrived in Panama.
Panamanian foreign minister Mr Jose Aleman confirmed that Mr Montesinos had arrived in Panama requesting political asylum.
"Montesinos arrived at around 5:00 a.m. (10 a.m. Irish time) requesting territorial asylum, and we are continuing to evaluate the situation," Mr Aleman said. A military official in Lima confirmed media reports that Mr Montesinos and four other persons had left Peru during the night and headed north. According to the television station, Canal N, Mr Montesinos was transported by helicopter to the international airport in Lima, where he departed sometime after midnight aboard an Israelimade Astra jet destined for Panama. On Saturday, top officials in Panama City had said they would not grant political asylum to the former top aide to Mr Fujimori.
Yesterday, however, a Panamanian government official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Panama was reconsidering Mr Montesinos' asylum request. Also yesterday, a petition filed by member countries of the Organisation of American States (OAS) was delivered to the government of Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, asking that the country grant asylum to Mr Montesinos in an effort to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Peruvian crisis. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Ms Mercedes Arias said that the Panamanian government would inform the international community of its decision later.
News reports in Panama said the US ambassador in Panama City had also called on the government to grant asylum to Mr Montesinos. Peruvian authorities, according to newspaper and television reports, had made a similar request to Brazil, which was refused, Brazilian officials said yesterday.
Brazil has "no knowledge of the situation of former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos", a spokesman for the country's foreign relations department said.
The opposition newspaper, La Republica, claimed that Mr Montesinos had left with the complicity of Mr Fujimori. Mr Montesinos was guilty of "bribery, corruption, torture, spying, defamation . . . and government complicity in his gilded exile", the paper said.
Mr Fujimori stunned the nation a week ago when he announced new presidential and parliamentary elections in which he would not be a candidate.
In the same September 16th speech, the embattled president announced the dismantling of the feared National Intelligence Service (SIN), headed by Mr Montesinos, a man reviled by the opposition for what it sees as his propensity for dirty tricks against critics of the regime.
Many Peruvians considered the 55-year-old former army captain, long regarded as Mr Fujimori's right-hand man and close confidant, to be the true power in the land. Mr Montesinos derived his influence, in part, from his vast library of incriminating documents on both friends and foes. Ironically, he seems to have fallen victim to his own handiwork, after a video surfaced showing him slipping 15,000 dollars to a former opposition lawmaker in an apparent effort to bribe the politician to join Mr Fujimori's majority.
Mr Montesinos' dramatic fall from grace was completed on Friday when, after a four-hour meeting with opposition leaders, it was announced officially that he would no longer exercise any function, job or responsibility in the state.