MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Peruvian economy minister arrested in Argentina

Former Peruvian Economy Minister Jorge Francisco Baca Campodonico, who stands accused of being a part of the corruption network run by former presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos, was arrested Thursday by Interpol in Buenos Aires.

Last year, an international arrest warrant was issued for Baca Campodonico, 53, by the Peruvian judicial system, a source close to the case told News Agencies.

The arrest in the Argentine capital occurred near the main train station, an area of the city that has many luxury hotels.

Baca Campodonico was handed over to the Federal Police and on Friday he will be placed at the disposal of the justice system, sources said.

He was named Peru's economy and finance minister in June 1998, and he is one of the more than 1,500 officials of the Alberto Fujimori administration (1990-2000) to be put on trial or investigated in connection with the pervasive corruption network run by Montesinos, now in prison near Lima awaiting numerous trials on an assortment of charges.

The Peruvian justice system has issued international arrest warrants with the goal of having them extradited to Peru against ten of the officials, among them Fujimori himself, who is in exile in Japan.

served as director of the Central Reserve Bank and was also the head of the National Superintendence of Tax Administration (Sunat) before becoming economy minister