<P> In 1965, Montesinos graduated as a military cadet at the US Army's School of the Americas in Panama . A year later, he graduated from the Military School of Chorrillos, in Lima, Peru . </P> <P> In the early 1970s, during the leftist military junta of General Juan Velasco, Montesinos became a captain in the Peruvian army . By 1973, he had been appointed to the role of aide to General Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, who served as both Prime Minister and Chief of the Armed Forces . </P> <P> In 1976, Major Jose Fernandez Salvatteci of the Military Intelligence Service (Spanish: Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército (SIE)) charged Montesinos with the crimes of spying and treason, accusing him of delivering military documents to the embassy of the United States in Lima . The documents included a list of weapons which Peru had purchased from the Soviet Union . General Mercado ordered the charges dropped . </P> <P> That same year, Montesinos went on a two - week trip to Washington, D.C., paid for by the United States government . Upon his return to Lima, he was arrested for having failed to obtain formal government permission to make the trip . The subsequent investigation revealed that top - secret documents had been found in his possession, and that he had photographed them and given copies to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Montesinos had travelled to the U.S. without authorization from army command, and had forged military documents to allow him to complete the trip without being detained . He visited several foreign institutions as an official representative of the Peruvian army, also without authorization . Montesinos was dishonorably discharged from the military and sentenced to a year in military prison . This was a far less severe sentence than the customary death penalty that was the punishment for traitors during the military regime . </P>

What former head of the cuban secret service was charged