Jailed former Peruvian official publishes book about Chavez

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Lima (dpa) - The former head of Peruvian intelligence who is now serving time in prison has written a book alleging Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez interfered in electoral processes across South America.

Vladimiro Montesinos' book, Mud Idols: The Demons of Asymmetric War, was released on Thursday and features the faces of Cuban President Fidel Castro, his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales and Chavez on its cover.

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and former Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, who was backed by Chavez, are also featured in the book.

Montesinos claims that Castro and Chavez "will keep using Ollanta Humala to destabilise" Peru. In June, the populist Humala lost the presidential election in Peru to social democrat Alan Garcia.

Montesinos is charged with having led the criminal-political network that was allegedly active in Peru during President Alberto Fujimori's administration.

Montesinos has been incarcerated at the Callao naval base since 2001 and is being charged with corruption and human rights violations in many separate cases. In September he was condemned to a 20-year jail term for smuggling weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1999.

In May, Montesinos published a small book entitled "Chess Pawn" in which he claimed that Humala is just a puppet in a game allegedly led by Castro and Chavez. But political analysts said that the former presidential aide provides no evidence for his claims.

Fujimori fled to Japan from Peru in 2000 under a cloud of corruption and resigned from his post. Japan refused to consider extradition requests from Peru because Fujimori was considered a Japanese citizen.

In 2005, Fujimori, who planned to run again for president of Peru this year, was arrested in Chile on his journey back to Peru. Authorities have again requested his extradition to face trial for corruption and human rights violations.