Peru’s Prime Minister Ana Jara Fires Senior Intelligence Officials

Peru’s Prime Minister Ana Jara Fires Senior Intelligence Officials

Allegations widen over spy agency’s alleged gathering of information on notable people

By Robert Kozak
March 20, 2015 2:32 p.m. ET

LIMA, Peru—Peru’s Prime Minister Ana Jara has removed the head of the National Intelligence Service and other high-level officials, as allegations widened that the spy agency had for years gathered information on a broad range of well-known people in the country.

Ms. Jara told Congress on Friday that intelligence agents allegedly compiled information about cabinet ministers, wealthy business leaders, opposition politicians, members of President Ollanta Humala’s family, journalists and others, including Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.

The firings come as weekly magazine Correo Semanal on Thursday published details of the alleged domestic spying. This latest spy allegations hark back to pervasive domestic spying during the decadelong rule of ex-president Alberto Fujimori and former intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, both of whom are in prison for convictions on a number of charges.

~ snip ~

These latest revelations could hurt the image of President Humala, whose popularity rating has fallen to about 25% as of mid March, pollsters say. Mr. Humala wasn’t implicated by the magazine in the spying activity, and Ms. Jara was appointed by and is a political ally of Mr. Humala.

More:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/perus-prime-minister-ana-jara-fires-senior-intelligence-officials-1426876326