Peruvians yesterday continued to celebrate President Alberto Fujimori's decision to leave office, but many wondered why he was bowing out now, having survived more serious scandals in the past.
Local media reports suggested Mr Fujimori was forced to resign by the military, angered at the announcement that the National Intelligence Service (SIN) is to be dismantled. However, the Peruvian military is delighted at the disappearance of the SIN, which was controlled by Mr Vladimiro Montesinos, a disgraced ex-army captain imprisoned in 1977 for selling military secrets to the CIA. Mr Montesinos engineered the promotion of his military academy colleagues to the army top brass, angering officers passed over for promotion.
Mr Montesinos first gained Mr Fujimori's confidence in 1990 by "disappearing" legal records which revealed the President had cheated on property taxes. Mr Montesinos quickly became the power behind the throne, accumulating 2,500 secret videos of politicians, generals, journalists and judges, ensuring their complicity with Mr Fujimori's rule. Mr Montesinos has been detained by the military but no formal arrest warrant was issued, according to his sister, Ms Ana Montesinos, who has filed a habeas corpus writ to determine his whereabouts.
It has yet to be revealed how a video, which featured Mr Montesinos, found its way from the SIN offices to an opposition politician. However, it seems clear Mr Fujimori tied his political fortunes too closely to those of his intelligence chief.
More significantly, the Peruvian President, once a symbol of political and economic stability in the region, has become a liability at a sensitive time. In Colombia and Ecuador, fragile governments struggle to stay in power while Venezuela is in the grip of a Castro-style leader, worrying the US which is anxious to extend its control throughout the Andean region.
Mr Fujimori must yield to Mr Alejandro Toledo, a World Bank economist cheated out of victory at the polls in May. The bribery scandal was merely a catalyst that hastened the inevitable - trivial when set alongside Mr Fujimori's infamous decade. In 1992, Mr Fujimori shut down Congress and the nation's Supreme Court while his chief adviser, Mr Montesinos, was charged with channelling drug funds into government coffers. He persuaded prosecutors to drop the case.
In the run-up to presidential elections last May, Mr Fujimori's Peru 2000 coalition admitted falsifying one million signatures on behalf of their candidate while TV stations refused to broadcast paid opposition advertisements. Commentators believed Mr Fujimori would resign his post within a year, once he had sorted out a retirement package.
A fortnight ago he wriggled out of a scandal involving the sale of 10,000 weapons to Colombian guerrillas with the help of serving Peruvian army personnel. It undermined the army and angered the US government, which has escalated its involvement in the war against Colombian rebels. Mr Alberto Kouri, the politician at the centre of the bribery scandal, has claimed the funds he received from Mr Montesinos were destined for the poor.