U.S. SAYS ASYLUM IN PANAMA HELPED AVERT A COUP IN PERU

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 American officials today defended their role in
pressing Panama to give refuge to the ousted intelligence chief of
Peru, asserting that his departure was necessary to avoid a coup by
officers loyal to him.

Administration officials confirmed that the intelligence chief,
Valdimiro Montesinos, has had a longstanding relationship with United
States intelligence agencies. But they said the contacts were informal
and had no bearing on the efforts to help him settle in Panama.

Even as administration officials insisted that Mr. Montesinos's
departure was important to helping Peru remain on a path toward
democracy, human rights groups voiced skepticism. They criticized the
United States for seeking to arrange a soft landing for Mr. Montesinos
outside Peru, where it may be more difficult to prosecute him for
widespread abuses that were reportedly carried out under his command.

Mr. Montesinos, who was a top adviser to President Alberto K.
Fujimori, sought political asylum in Panama on Sunday, 10 days after
the release in Peru of a videotape in which he apparently sought to
bribe an opposition lawmaker. Mr. Fujimori has announced that he will
step down next year after holding new elections and that he will
abolish the National Intelligence Service. Mr. Montesinos had headed
agency, which was implicated in numerous cases of human rights abuses.

Panamanian authorities have granted Mr. Montesinos a 30-day tourist
visa and have retained his passport, officials said. The decision to
let him remain was made after appeals from the Organization of
American States and six Latin American presidents, as well as
telephone calls from Under Secretary of State Thomas R. Pickering.

A senior American official said Peruvian officers loyal to Mr.
Montesinos had given numerous signs, beginning last week, that they
would attempt a coup against Mr. Fujimori unless they received an
"ironclad guarantee" that Mr. Montesinos would be given safe haven
outside Peru. American officials were specifically concerned about a
military celebration, Armed Forces Day, that was held as planned on
Sunday.

Last week, as United States and Latin American diplomats struggled to
defuse a confrontation between supporters of Mr. Fujimori and Mr.
Montesinos, army leaders loyal to Mr. Montesinos sounded out the
nation's two vice presidents to gauge their support for a coup, but
were rebuffed, the officials said.

Mr. Montesinos's loyalists in the army and the national police agreed
to sign a document in support of Mr. Fujimori's government only after
they had seen United States and Latin American leaders' efforts for
Mr. Montesinos.

Some experts on Peru and human rights advocates voiced skepticism
about the rationale for granting him Montesinos safe haven. Cynthia
McClintock, a political scientist at George Washington University,
said Mr. Montesinos's military support in Peru was shallow, limited to
several senior army officials. She raised the prospect that the
Central Intelligence Agency might have been eager to remove Mr.
Montesinos from Peru as he increasingly faced the prospect of
prosecution there.

A spokesman for the C.I.A., Mark Mansfield, declined to discuss Mr.
Montesinos's ties. An American official insisted, however, that the
intelligence agency did not play a role in arranging Mr. Montesinos's
exit.

A regional specialist for Human Rights Watch/Americas, Jos Miguel
Vivanco, called the coup threat groundless and said the United States
and other nations of the region were promoting impunity for a major
violator of human rights. "This shows how powerful Montesinos is, how
he managed to get full support of the Peruvian government and the
sympathy of key governments in the region, including the U.S., to find
a nice sweet deal for him," Mr. Vivanco said.

Mr. Vivanco's organization said Mr. Montesinos had ordered numerous
crimes, including the "disappearances," torture and executions of nine
students and a professor from La Cantuta University in 1992.

Despite such allegations, Mr. Montesinos drew praise from some
American officials for helping eradicate a threat posed by guerrilla
organizations in Peru and cooperating with American anti-drug efforts.

A spokesman for the State Department, Richard A. Boucher, acknowledged
Washington's role in persuading Panama to accept Mr. Montesinos. But
he challenged the idea that the administration was standing up for
antidemocratic forces in Peru. He also left open the possibility that
Mr. Montesinos could eventually be prosecuted.