Why were up to ten police patrol cars and dozens of officers providing round-the-clock protection at a house belonging to a convicted criminal? That is a question to which Peru's president, Ol-lanta Humala, has so far been unable to provide a coherent answer. And it is one that threatens further damage to Mr Hu-mala's deteriorating reputation. The criminal in question is Oscar Lopez Meneses, who was given a suspended prison sentence for helping to run a vast espionage, extortion and embezzlement racket in the 1990s for Vladimiro Montesinos. The intelligence chief under the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori, Mr Montesinos is now serving a 25-year prison sentence. When a television programme revealed Mr Lopez's continuing ties to the police earlier this month, the interior minister, Wilfredo Pedraza, resigned and seven senior policemen were sacked.
展开▼
