Peru's former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos on Thursday settled into the dreaded jail he himself designed at a naval base for the country's top felons.
Montesinos' wife Trinidad Becerra said the spy master would go on hunger strike and refuse to spill his secrets if taken to the naval base at Callao port. Peru's chief prison official said the move was not "revenge" but for Montesinos' own good. Montesinos' wife Trinidad Becerra said the spy master would go on hunger strike and refuse to spill his secrets if taken to the naval base at Callao port. Peru's chief prison official said the move was not "revenge" but for Montesinos' own good.

"It was necessary, exceptionally, for security reasons," Gino Costa, head of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), told CPN radio, adding the overnight move from a dungeon under the law courts was only temporary and to guarantee his safety.

The spy chief, who sparked a corruption scandal last year that brought down President Alberto Fujimori, faces charges ranging from embezzlement and murder in 52 separate cases. His capture has ratcheted up the pressure for Fujimori to be hauled home from self-exile to account for alleged misdeeds.

A group of around 100 protesters demonstrated outside the Japanese embassy in Lima on Thursday to demand his return.
As more details emerged about his murky capture near Caracas on Saturday night -- Peru says Montesinos' guards had struck a secret deal with Lima to turn him in and were en route to the handover point when Venezuelan agents intercepted them -- the FBI revealed the spy master made fatal miscalculations. Despite being Latin America's most wanted man, he e-mailed a threatening letter to a Miami bank demanding it hand cash to an envoy of his and transfer funds from a frozen account. Bureau Report