Montesinos Seeks CIA Aid on Arms Ring Charges

LIMA, Peru —  Former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos wants two CIA agents to testify in his behalf against charges that he masterminded a clandestine arms pipeline to Colombian guerrillas, a judge said Friday.

Judge Jimena Cayo said Montesinos’ lawyer gave her the names of two agents who the former spymaster claims will vouch for the fact that he had nothing to do with a ring that parachuted at least 10,000 assault rifles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Montesinos says the CIA agents came to his headquarters “to tell him that they had discovered the arms trafficking between Peru and Colombia,” Cayo said. She declined to identify the agents.

Montesinos’ position is that if he had been involved in the arms trafficking, the CIA would not have told him about it, Cayo said.

No formal request had yet been made to obtain sworn statements from anyone in the CIA, she said.

Montesinos’ lawyer Gloria Aguero could not immediately be reached. An official at the U.S. Embassy declined to comment.

A year ago, State Department officials said they had alerted Peru to the arms smuggling after Colombia’s military captured scores of weapons traced to a 1998 arms transaction between Peru and Jordan.

Meanwhile, Japan said Friday that Peru’s international arrest warrant for former President Alberto Fujimori on charges of abandoning office will not change Tokyo’s stance against handing him over.

Peruvian Judge Jose Luis Lecaros had declared Fujimori a fugitive and ordered his arrest. The disgraced president fled to Japan in November to escape a corruption scandal and was sacked as president shortly after.

Japan has said it cannot extradite Fujimori because he is a Japanese citizen as well as Peruvian.