FORMER SPY CHIEF OF PERU CAPTURED IN VENEZUELA HIDEOUT

BUENOS AIRES -- Vladimiro Montesinos, the former Peruvian spy chief and
longtime C.I.A. agent wanted on charges of gun running, money laundering
and collaborating with drug traffickers, was captured on Saturday night in
Venezuela with crucial help from the F.B.I. after an eight-month
international manhunt.

Mr. Montesinos, who was the principal aide to the ousted Peruvian
president, Alberto K. Fujimori, was captured by Venezuelan military
intelligence officers in a hideout in Caracas and held at a local military
headquarters there.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced the apprehension today during
a meeting of Andean region leaders and said he had told his interior
minister to speed legal proceedings to send him back to Peru to stand trial.

Mr. Chavez, long considered a secret ally of Mr. Montesinos, came under
pressure from Peru to make the arrest. He long insisted, despite mounting
evidence, that Mr. Montesinos was not under protection in Venezuela. Today
he vowed that the 56-year-old spy would be sent back "more quickly than
immediately."

Witnesses reported having seen Mr. Montesinos in Venezuela in December
seeking plastic surgery. There were persistent reports that he was hiding
out at a ranch owned by a Venezuelan tycoon associated with the Venezuelan
interior minister in the province of Barinas, protected by 100 guards. Mr.
Montesinos had a $5 million bounty on his head.

A Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
the F.B.I. had played a crucial role in the capture.

Investigating Mr. Montesinos's money-laundering trail, the F.B.I. arrested
three people in Miami on Saturday, including a Venezuelan who said he knew
where Mr. Montesinos was hiding, the official said. Senior Peruvian
officials were immediately notified, and Peru then demanded that Venezuela
take action.

The other two people were later released.

United States officials said that given the overwhelming new evidence of
Mr. Montesinos's whereabouts, Mr. Chavez had no choice but to order the arrest.

"We're extremely pleased that Vladimiro Montesinos has finally been
caught," said a statement released by the American Embassy in Lima. "The
longstanding U.S.-Peruvian cooperation in the hunt for Montesinos bore
fruit over the last few weeks, generating leads which led to the detention
of Montesinos."

The statement said United States support over the course of the manhunt had
"played a vital role in Montesinos's capture."

The Peruvian interior minister, Antonio Ketin Vidal, agreed that the F.B.I.
had played an important role in the capture, though Mr. Chavez credited his
own intelligence agency for spotting the fugitive.

Mr. Chavez told reporters today that "certain people" in Venezuela had been
hiding the fugitive. Mr. Chavez said he had never seen Mr. Montesinos in
person.

Nevertheless, the Venezuelan leader added, "There's bound to be someone
who's going to say, 'You see, Chavez did have him all along.' "

For months Peruvian authorities have asked that Washington make every
effort to find Mr. Montesinos, arguing that the United States had a moral
obligation to pursue him.

As a young junior army officer, Mr. Montesinos first helped the C.I.A. in
the 1970's by passing the agency documents disclosing Soviet arms purchases
by the leftist military government that ruled Peru at the time. He was
cashiered and jailed for a year for sabotage, and he became a defense
lawyer for drug trafficking suspects after he was freed.

Mr. Montesinos eventually became Mr. Fujimori's personal lawyer, handling a
potentially embarrassing tax problem for him during his first presidential
election campaign, in 1990, and later his divorce.

On taking office, Mr. Fujimori made Mr. Montesinos his spy chief. The
C.I.A. set up an anti-drug force within the National Intelligence Service
under Mr. Montesinos's command in the early 1990's.

Mr. Montesinos was credited with coordinating an anti-drug campaign that
decreased coca cultivation in Peru by more than half, but he was accused of
taking bribes from a number of traffickers.

He used his closeness to American intelligence as an asset in garnering
increasing power in Peru, although he was a contentious figure within the
Clinton administration. There were repeated debates in the United States
government over whether to break off ties with him.

The Clinton administration finally distanced itself from Mr. Montesinos
early last year when evidence mounted that he was working to fix the 2000
presidential election and that he was involved in trafficking arms to
Colombian guerrillas while the United States was planning an anti-drug plan
for Colombia.

Peru's public prosecutor last week charged Mr. Montesinos with amassing a
fortune of some $265 million during Mr. Fujimori's decade in power. Mr.
Fujimori resigned and fled to Japan last November, escaping looming
corruption charges.

Mr. Montesinos has been linked to death squad activities, taking protection
money from drug traffickers, running guns to Marxist guerrillas in Colombia
and committing electoral fraud to ensure the re-election of Mr. Fujimori to
a third term last year, according to prosecutors and Peruvian congressional
investigators. He was also linked to purchases of faulty military equipment
in return for kickbacks.

Peruvian prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of life in prison for
the former spy chief, but they have hinted that they may be more lenient if
he agrees to cooperate in other investigations.

Hundreds of videotapes already captured from Mr. Montesinos after his
flight have shown him giving bribes and conspiring with congressmen,
business executives, army generals, election officials, mayors and owners
of television stations. It is likely that he could offer information on
scores of officials and others who remain in powerful positions.

Born into a family of Marxist labor organizers, Mr. Montesinos was given
Lenin's first name, Vladimir. Former associates said Mr. Montesinos had a
taste for diamond-crusted watches, double-breasted suits, military history
books and Bach. He had several houses and apartments, including one in
Argentina and a beachside mansion outside Lima with a secret tunnel leading
from his bath.

Peru's interim president, Valentin Paniagua, expressed satisfaction at the
news of the capture, calling Mr. Montesinos the "the mastermind of the
worst-ever web of corruption in Peru." He sent Interior Minister Vidal to
Caracas to escort Mr. Montesinos back to Lima.

"This is an encouraging development, and it makes possible the ultimate
success of the fight for the moralization of Peru," Mr. Paniagua said from
the Peruvian city of Arequipa, where he was overseeing a rescue effort
after a powerful earthquake that struck southern Peru on Saturday
afternoon, killing at least 50 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Peru's prime minister, Javier Perez de Cuellar, was in Venezuela for the
meeting of Andean leaders in the city of Valencia and is expected to remain
in the country to monitor the extradition process. Venezuelan officials
said Mr. Montesinos might be returned to Peru within 24 hours.

President-elect Alejandro Toledo, who met with Mr. Chavez on Thursday in
Lima, said he hoped that the capture of Mr. Montesinos would accelerate the
extradition of former President Fujimori, who is living in an apartment in
Japan and has Japanese as well as Peruvian citizenship.

"This is good news for the men and women of Peru anxious for justice," Mr.
Toledo, who takes office on July 28, said in a radio interview. "I'm not
going to be party to a witch hunt or to vendettas, but neither am I going
to be party to impunity."

Since Mr. Montesinos probably entered Venezuela illegally after a voyage on
a yacht that took him to the Galapagos Islands and eventually to Costa Rica
and Aruba, he could be thrown out of the country without a lengthy
extradition process.

Mr. Chavez may have owed Mr. Montesinos and Mr. Fujimori a favor, since
Peru gave refuge to several Venezuelan officers allied with Mr. Chavez in a
failed coup attempt in 1992. After the tainted Peruvian election last year,
Mr. Chavez was one of the few Latin American leaders who defended Mr. Fujimori.