Editing Vladimiro Montesinos (section)

== '''espionage scandal''' ==
In 1976, Major José Fernández Salvatteci, of the Army Military Intelligence Service, accused Montesinos of the crimes of espionage and treason, accusing him of delivering military documents to the United States embassy in Lima. The documents included a list of weapons that Peru had bought from the Soviet Union. Shortly after, General Mercado ordered that the accusations be dropped.

It is known that Montesinos made a two-week trip to Washington D.C., paid for by the United States Government. Upon his return to Lima, he was arrested for failing to obtain official government permission to make the trip. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in possession of top-secret documents, and that he had photographed them and provided copies to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Montesinos had traveled to the United States without authorization from the Army command, and had falsified military documents to allow him to complete the trip without being detained. He visited various foreign institutions as an official representative of the Peruvian army, also without authorization. For these acts, he was dishonorably discharged from the Army and sentenced to one year in military prison. This was a much less severe sentence than the usual death sentence that was the punishment for traitors during the military regime.

Years later, declassified US State Department documents revealed the reason for the CIA's interest in Montesinos. In the 1970s, Peru was ruled by the only left-wing regime in South America, a continent dominated by right-wing governments. Locked in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and fearing its influence in the region, as well as that of Cuba's communist government, the United States sought information on Peru's military activities. Montesinos conjured up and told a story about a possible armed intervention by Peru against Chile, which was governed by Pinochet, an ally of the United States. The military operation would have the support of the Cuban regime and had the objective of recovering the territory that Peru had lost after the War of the Pacific.


When he went into military retirement in September 1976, he falsified documents to pretend that he was continuing his law studies at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Two years later, on July 24, 1978, Montesinos received his law degree. According to several journalistic reports, the graduation or degree as a lawyer is not recorded in any book of the Central Registry Office of the University of San Marcos, for which reason Montesinos never obtained his professional title of lawyer in a regular way, due to the lack of supporting documents. of the issuance of the title.
[[Category:Latin American Villains]]
[[Category:Political]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Cowards]]
[[Category:Peru]]
[[Category:Living Villains]]
[[Category:Male]]
[[Category:Imprisoned]]
[[Category:Cold war villains]]
[[Category:Misogynists]]
[[Category:Xenophobes]]
[[Category:War Criminal]]
[[Category:Kidnapper]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Rapists]]
[[Category:Perverts]]
[[Category:Genocidal]]
[[Category:Propagandist]]
[[Category:Grey Zone]]
[[Category:Corrupt Officials]]