Pubdate: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Kevin G. Hall, Mercury News Rio de Janiero Bureau MUTINY'S LEADER SAYS TOP MILITARY OFFICIALS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED FOR TIES TO DRUGS, ARMS LIMA, Peru -- An obscure army lieutenant colonel in southern Peru led a mutiny Sunday, temporarily seizing a mining town and demanding the resignation of President Alberto Fujimori and the prosecution of top military officers and former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. There was no sign that other soldiers were rallying to the mutineers' side, or that the uprising posed a threat to Fujimori, who purged the military Saturday of four top officers with close ties to Montesinos, a former Fujimori ally turned political rival. Although the rebels were believed to be fleeing to a remote area in the Andes more than 13,000 feet above sea level and some 700 miles from the capital, the insurrection underscores the power of the military in Peruvian politics, which has been in turmoil since a controversial election July 28. The mutiny's leader, Lt. Col. Ollanta Moises Humala Tasso, 36, said he was leading a ``new Peruvian army'' and demanded that Montesinos and top military leaders be investigated for ties to drug and arms traffickers. ``The illegitimacy of Alberto Fujimori as president of the republic and commander-in-chief of the armed forces is the cause of the political and social convulsion in the country from the fraudulent electoral process . . . Since July 28, 2000, he has usurped power,'' said Humala Tasso in a communique. Jorge Santistevan, Peru's respected public defender, compared Humala Tasso to Venezuela's authoritarian President Hugo Chavez, who led a failed military coup in 1992 but later was elected president. Santistevan called Sunday's insurrection a ``wake-up call'' for Fujimori to quickly cashier other military men whose careers are tied to Montesinos. Fujimori, late Saturday, had accepted what appeared to be the forced resignations of armed forces chief Gen. Jose Villanueva Ruesta and three other Montesinos loyalists. But he replaced Villanueva with Interior Minister Gen. Walter Chacon, who also is thought to owe his move up the ranks to Montesinos, the disgraced spy chief. Rumors of a coup in Peru have persisted for weeks, but coup threats were generally thought to come from top leaders who owed their positions to manipulation of the promotion process by Montesinos. Mid-level officers have long been spied on and controlled by military leaders wary of being toppled by their subordinates. Nevertheless, Peruvians awoke Sunday to reports that Lt. Col. Humala Tasso had led some 60-to-100 soldiers from an anti-aircraft artillery unit in a revolt in the small southern mining town of Toquepala, not far from the Chilean border. Humala Tasso's younger brother Antauro, 35, a former army major who was dismissed in 1998 for his political viewpoints, was also said to be involved in the rebellion. The reports said Humala Tasso announced his action during a Sunday morning mass, and had allegedly taken hostages in a mining camp that is majority-owned by Mexico's giant Grupo Mexico. The army said there were 43 rebellious soldiers and three civilians, who were thought to have stolen food and gas as they fled toward the town of Puno. Interviewed on national television, Humala Tasso's mother, Elena, said her sons revolted because they ``love Peru.'' Her husband, Isaac, said he was proud of his son and said that while the action amounted to insurrection, those atop the tarnished military ``who are judging it are definitely worse than him.'' Sunday's mutiny was the latest twist in Peru's bizarre political crisis, which deepened on Oct. 23 when a manhunt began for Montesinos, once Fujimori's closest and most powerful aide, who returned unexpectedly from Panama, where he had sought asylum. - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew