By
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru - President Alberto Fujimori resigned in a letter to Congress yesterday, ending a 10-year reign in which he crushed leftist insurgents and tamed runaway inflation - but also bullied the country's democracy to fit his iron-fisted rule.
Fujimori's resignation caught the country's leadership by surprise and left a trail of confusion over who would succeed him. The president was on a visit to his ancestral homeland Japan and stepped down in a letter to Congress President Valentin Paniagua.
"I submit to you, Mr. President of Congress, my formal resignation as president of the republic," Fujimori wrote in the two-page letter, a copy of which was faxed to The Associated Press by the Government Palace.
"I am the first to recognize that there is a new political scenario in the country," said Fujimori in the letter.
It was not clear when - or if - Fujimori would return to Peru. Japanese officials said Fujimori had not requested political asylum. But Mary Ellen Countryman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, said yesterday that Peruvian officials have informed the U.S. government that Fujimori would stay in Japan indefinitely.
Paniagua said Congress would be called into session today to take up the resignation.
Fujimori's letter spoke of a "new correlation of forces." It was an apparent reference to the fact that opposition lawmakers won control of Congress last week.
The letter did not elaborate, but a motion had been placed before the 120-seat legislature to remove Fujimori as president on constitutional grounds of "moral incapacity."
Fujimori acknowledged "errors" during his 10 years of rule but insisted he had always acted in Peru's best interests. He said he was stepping aside for the good of the country.
Fujimori had announced in a written statement earlier yesterday that he would resign within 48 hours.
Fujimori was initially popular for defeating the powerful Marxist Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerrillas - which controlled much of Peru's countryside and shantytowns, and ending annual inflation that topped 7,000 percent when he took office in 1990.
But his popular support was eroded by lingering poverty, weariness with his autocratic ways and his close ties to his shadowy spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, who critics charge with corruption and human rights abuses.
The signature moment of his autocratic, hands-on leadership style came in 1996 when he personally directed the rescue of 74 hostages held by Tupac Amaru rebels in the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. The siege ended with commandoes storming the building, killing all 14 rebels.
Fujimori and Montesinos had controlled almost all aspects of Peruvian society - from congress to the courts to television stations - and his resignation has set off a power struggle to fill the vacuum he leaves.
It was the release in September of a videotape apparently showing Montesinos bribing an opposition congressman that launched the scandal that prompted Fujimori's downfall.
Fujimori's trip abroad had fueled speculation at home that he would go into exile in Asia.
Second Vice President Ricardo Marquez said Sunday that he was ready to assume the presidency and lead Peru to special elections on April 8.
But the issue of succession was clouded by controversy.
Under the constitution, the first vice president takes over when the president resigns. But First Vice President Francisco Tudela resigned after Montesinos returned to Peru on Oct. 23 following a failed asylum bid in Panama.
Congress, however, had yet to accept his resignation. Opposition Congressman Fernando Olivera said lawmakers would move to ratify Tudela's resignation unless he withdrew it before the end of the day yesterday.
Radio reports said Tudela returned from a trip abroad early yesterday and was meeting in his house with opposition Congressman Rafael Rey - raising speculation he would pursue a claim for the post. If the first vice president were out of the running, the second vice president is constitutionally the next in line.
Meanwhile, other opposition lawmakers questioned Marquez's democratic credentials and said they would call for his resignation to pave the way for Paniagua, the recently elected Congress president, to take office.
Paniagua, a political moderate who was installed last week by opposition legislators, would be constitutionally next in line after the first and second vice presidents.
"Marquez is a person linked to Fujimori's inner circle," said Congresswoman Milagros Huaman. "We are going to ask for Marquez's resignation."
Arriving in Madrid on Sunday on his way back to Peru, opposition leader Alejandro Toledo called on Paniagua to take over running the country and rejected calls for immediate elections.
"We need the most stable conditions for transition possible," Toledo told a brief news conference. "We need time to deactivate the intelligence services of Montesinos."
