BY LUCIEN O. CHAUVIN
 Special to The Herald

 LIMA -- A year ago, writer Alvaro Vargas Llosa was riding high. He had two new books on the market, and was a top advisor to Alejandro Toledo, who would go on to win the Peruvian presidency.

 But instead of holding a top post in the Toledo government today, Vargas Llosa is now in hiding and accusing Toledo and his inner circles of the kind of political
 persecution that Toledo promised to stamp out when he was elected last June.

 Vargas Llosa, 35 and son of Peru's internationally known author Mario Vargas Llosa, says he now feels as though he is living a chapter from one of his books chronicling the abuses committed during President Alberto Fujimori's harsh rule from 1990 to 2000.

 ``I'm living in the world of the absurd, as if I were once more investigating the events that I described in The Reign of Terror, instead of living through the democratic
 transition,'' he said.

 He blames the Toledo government for lawsuits, totaling $7 million and threatening him with at least six years in prison, filed after he alleged that some of Toledo's closest allies are working on illegal arms deals.

 His foes say his allegations were wrong.

 'A TOTAL LIE'

 "This young man confuses freedom of the press with freedom to defame. Everything he says is a total lie and it is my right to defend my name,'' says Adam Pollack, who is suing Vargas Llosa for $1 million.

 Vargas Llosa was close to Toledo throughout the struggle against Fujimori, who was forced to resign in late 2000 amid a bribery scandal involving his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

 But the relationship began to cool in early 2001 as the election season got underway. He says the main disagreement was over the way Toledo handled a paternity suit against Toledo. He broke with Toledo and joined forces with TV talk show host Jaime Bayly to take on both Toledo and his opponent, Alan Garcia.

 They launched a campaign to persuade Peruvians to vote "blank,'' arguing that neither Toledo nor Garcia were trustworthy. Voting in Peru is mandatory and if blank votes
 total more than 33 percent, a new election is held.

 "I always knew the president wanted revenge for my bailing out in mid-campaign, but I never expected things to reach such an extreme,'' he says.

 What got Vargas Llosa into his current bind were comments that three of Toledo's closest friends, Pollack, Josef Maiman and Gil Shavit, were working behind the scenes to get the government to sign military contracts with the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

 Vargas Llosa alleges that the deal was being drawn up without public bids, mirroring the shady ways in which the Fujimori administration did business. He says the issue is even more sensitive given that the contracts were to repair Russian-made MiG-29s that are at the center of the bribery scandal involving Montesinos.

 Pollack denies the accusations and says Vargas Llosa is being used as a pawn by Montesinos' allies to harm the Toledo government.

 `MONTESINOS MAFIA'

 "I am sure he received this false information from the Montesinos mafia to harm the president. The mafia has lost all its influence in the government, and is also looking for ways to regain some power,'' Pollack said.

 Montesinos, who was arrested in Venezuela last June, is being investigated on more than 50 charges ranging from arms trafficking to crimes against humanity. Peruvian investigators have uncovered more than $300 million in secret bank accounts in his name and believe he and his allies stole upward of $1 billion during Fujimori's reign.

 Vargas Llosa says it is not the lawsuits filed against him, but the speed with which the judges on the cases have moved and the severity of their initial rulings that have
 him fearing for his safety.

 While the Peruvian media have picked up some of Vargas Llosa's claims, he has not received much support from opposition parties or his father. Mario Vargas Llosa has said he does not agree with his son's opinions, and remains a strong Toledo supporter.
 

                                    © 2002 The Miami Herald