US embassy cable - 05LIMA4748

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LIMA 004748 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/07/2015 
TAGS: PREL, KJUS, PE, CI, JA 
SUBJECT: FORMER PRESIDENT FUJIMORI'S ARRIVAL, ARREST IN 
SANTIAGO IS STUNNING NEWS IN PERU 
 
REF: A. SANTIAGO 2284 
 
     B. LIMA 4733 
 
Classified By: D/Polcouns Art Muirhead for Reason 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY.  Former President Fujimori's surprise arrival 
in Santiago over the weekend adds another complex issue to 
the strained Peruvian-Chilean bilateral agenda.  A Chilean 
court quickly acted to detain Fujimori, and the GOP is 
sending a high-level delegation to Santiago to argue for 
Fujimori's extradition.  The Chilean Embassy Political 
Officer (protect) told D/Polcouns that President Lagos, 
irritated with the GOP over the maritime border issue, was 
not taking calls from President Toledo.  The GOC, he added, 
was concerned about possible defects in the quality of the 
extradition request that will be presented by Peru.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) From the moment the story broke the afternoon of 11/6, 
Peruvians have raptly followed the media reports about former 
President Alberto Fujimori's arrival and subsequent detention 
in Santiago.  Lima dailies on 11/7 stressed that Fujimori had 
been arrested within 10 hours of his arrival in Chile, and 
would be the subject of an extradition process.  Press 
reports noted Foreign Minister Oscar Maurtua's statement that 
the Appellate Court of Santiago had ordered Fujimori's arrest 
after Peru submitted a diplomatic note requesting the former 
President's preventive detention, and that Fujimori was 
prohibited by the Court from leaving Chile.  Maurtua also 
said that a high-level delegation, including Interior 
Minister Romulo Pizarro, Anti-Corruption State's Attorney 
Antonio Maldonado, Police Interpol Director Carlos Medel, and 
special legal adviser Javier Ciurliza, was traveling to 
Santiago to argue the GOP's case. 
 
3. (SBU) Initial reports held that Fujimori had traveled from 
Japan to Chile in a private plane via a technical stop-over 
in Mexico.  Some press reporting on 11/7 (including that of 
leading daily "El Comercio") alleged that Fujimori's routing 
from Tokyo had been first to Atlanta on a Delta Airlines 
flight, then on to Tijuana, Mexico and finally, Santiago. 
Embassy DHS Attache has consulted with National 
Transportation Center in the U.S. and is examining 
immigration records for the period in question -- up to now, 
no/no information has been located which would substantiate 
Fujimori's having passed through the U.S. on his way to 
Santiago. 
 
4. (U) Immediately after the news of his arrival in Santiago, 
several hundred Fujimori supporters, many wearing the t-shirt 
of his "Si Cumple" (He Keeps His Promises) Party, rallied in 
downtown Lima.  An evening rally in front of the Chilean 
Ambassador's residence by anti-Fujimori protestors drew about 
a hundred participants.  Both demonstrations were orderly and 
without incident. 
 
5. (C) On 11/7, D/Polcouns discussed Fujimori's arrival in 
Santiago with Chilean Embassy Political Officer Fernando 
Velasco (strictly protect).  Velasco said that at least 
initially, President Lagos was not taking calls from 
President Toledo regarding Fujimori -- Lagos was upset about 
the GOP's disregard over the past few weeks for Chilean 
interests, especially on the issue of Peru's unilateral 
definition of the starting point for the two countries' 
maritime border (Ref B).  Lagos had, however, discussed 
Fujimori's arrival in Chile with FM Maurtua.  Maurtua had 
pushed for Fujimori to be immediately expelled to Peru by the 
GOC.  When Lagos made it clear this was not an option, 
Maurtua had agreed to submit an extradition request. 
Velasco's opinion was that an extradition case against 
Fujimori could spin out over a long period of time and had no 
guarantee of success, especially when considering the poor 
quality of submissions that Chile had received from Peru in 
other extradition cases.  (NOTE:  Chilean courts rejected 
Peruvian extradition requests for publicist Daniel Borobio in 
2002, and for newspaper editor Eduardo Calmell del Solar in 
2004.  END NOTE.) 
 
6. (C) Velasco said he had met the previous evening with 
Fernan Altuve, a former Fujimorista Congressman and expert in 
legal affairs who claimed to have been in regular contact 
with the former President during his exile in Japan.  Velasco 
was impressed with the detailed information that Altuve had 
about legal procedures in Chile, leading him to conclude that 
Altuve had been involved in planning for Fujimori's travel to 
Chile for some time.  Velasco said it was possible that 
Fujimori had entered Chile on his Japanese passport (since no 
visa would be required for Japanese citizens), raising 
concerns about the possible involvement of the GOJ as an 
advocate once extradition proceedings begin to move ahead. 
7. (C) COMMENT:  The quality of the GOP's extradition request 
to Japan for Fujimori has been repeatedly criticized in the 
Peruvian media.  The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has 
been hard-pressed to come up with a "smoking gun" to prove 
Fujimori's involvement in charges of corruption and human 
rights violations.  Javier Ciurliza, a law professor at the 
Catholic University and a member of Peru's high-level 
delegation to Santiago, told Poloff several months ago that 
he had been hired by the Foreign Ministry to revise Peru's 
extradition requests to Japan for Fujimori, characterizing 
those documents as "deeply flawed." 
STRUBLE