 Scandals hitting the spy service are thought to hinder the war on drugs |
Peru's intelligence chief, Daniel Mora, has resigned amid claims that his agency had plotted to get Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi sacked. The daily Correo said it received files from an intelligence official which allegedly incriminated the minister.
The spy chief has denied any campaign to undermine the minister.
But Prime Minister Carlos Ferrero said Mr Mora stepped down because he realised he should have been aware of what his subordinates were doing.
Mr Mora is the sixth spy-chief in Peru to step down in less than three years.
'Slanderous campaigns'
The newspaper did not publish the documents handed to it by retired army Colonel Jose Valdivia saying they were "inflated" and "from an interested source".
Col Valdivia has also been sacked.
Mr Rospigliosi has compared this latest incident to the "slanderous campaigns" that Vladimiro Montesinos - the intelligence chief under disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori - used to mount.
Montesinos - who is now in prison - sparked the corruption scandal that brought down the government in 2000, when a video appeared apparently showing him bribing an opposition politician.
Intelligence experts suggests that the constant changing of directors has reduced the agency's effectiveness in tracking down drug traffickers and remnants of rebel groups.
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