_WORLD WATCH______________________________
_________________Peru_______________________

Bishops ready to handle tapes
Trusted broker during corruption inquiry

Peru’s bishops have indicated that they are willing to handle the delicate task of returning videotapes that were secretly recorded by the nation’s former secret police chief to the people who were unwittingly captured on the tapes.

Former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, a close confidante of former President Alberto Fujimori, fled Peru last October after charges surfaced that he embezzled funds, blackmailed public officials, and smuggled arms to Colombian rebels. The existence of the videos, some of which depicted military, government, and business leaders in compromising circumstances, had been rumored for years. Fujimori himself was declared unfit for office by Congress after he fled to Japan in November as the Montesinos scandal mounted.

Court officials are reviewing the hundreds of tapes for evidence of corruption by members of the government, military, or business communities. Bishop Louis Bambaren, president of Peru’s bishops’ conference, said that the Church —one of the few institutions in Peru left untainted by the burgeoning scandal—would handle the return of videos that are deemed to be outside the scope of the criminal investigation.