U.S. closely involved with Peru's Montesinos (Financial Times)

[Aries]

The sins of Montesinos
By Thomas Catýn
FT.com site; Jul 25, 2003

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1058868123846&p=1012571727176

"...In response to requests by Peru's Truth Commission and human rights activists, the US State Department has released dozens of classified documents about Montesinos from its archives. The papers, which include previously secret cables between the US embassy and Washington, reveal the depth of the relationship with Montesinos and the extent to which US officials knew of his activities.

Together with interviews with former government officials in Washington and Lima and Montesinos' own tapes, the documents offer a unique picture of the ad hoc and highly improvised manner in which Washington conducted its relationship with a highly controversial contact at a time when the US had vital national security interests in the region.

Several former US policymakers interviewed also felt that their experience dealing with Montesinos offered an important cautionary tale as the US searches for people it can work with in the Middle East. After all, while the US is only just starting to intervene in the Middle East, its experience in Latin America stretches back 150 years..."