Peru's Fujimori criticized as he leaves for APEC summit

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Peru's President Alberto Fujimori left domestic political turmoil behind him, raising eyebrows as he set off on Monday for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Brunei, his office said.

A top government official said he was "surprised" Fujimori chose to leave Peru amid a two-month political crisis sparked by an escalating corruption scandal involving his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

The president has announced he will quit in July after calling new elections four years early. The move sparked a power vacuum in Peru and the president already canceled a U.S. trip last week because of rising political troubles.

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The government palace said in a statement Fujimori would leave at 11:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m.) for the APEC summit in Brunei on November 15-16 and would then attend an Ibero-American summit in Panama from November 17-18.

"I'm surprised that with this instability the president has decided to leave. ... He assumes the consequences of his act," Peru's respected state human rights ombudsman Jorge Santistevan told local CPN radio news.

Unusually, Fujimori took no reporters with him on his week-long trip, which came as a three-week manhunt for Montesinos was officially being intensified.

Fujimori's participation in the summits -- only confirmed on Monday shortly before his departure -- came amid a turbulent session in Congress during which a key ally, Congress President Martha Hildebrandt, could be ousted in a censure vote.

But stalwart ally Martha Chavez said Fujimori was not fleeing and would be back. "No one need worry, the president is not someone who runs away from problems," she said.

The opposition wants to replace Hildebrandt, whom they accuse of stonewalling probes into ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos and into alleged misdemeanors during Fujimori's tenure. If she is ousted, Fujimori's control over the country could be seriously weakened, analysts say.

Opposition calls for Fujimori to go now have multiplied in past weeks and censure of Hildebrandt could open the way for an opposition-controlled Congress to begin constitutional moves to eject the president on grounds of moral unfitness.

The timing of Fujimori's trip was especially sensitive after weekend allegations in Colombian news magazine Cambio that he had received $1 million from the notorious late drug lord Pablo Escobar to finance the election campaign in 1990 that shot him from political obscurity to the presidency.

Justice Minister Alberto Bustamante has dismissed the allegations, made by Escobar's brother Roberto.

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