LIMA, Peru (AP) -- In a rare visit to his homeland, Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas
                  Llosa on Monday called President Alberto Fujimori a dictator and accused him of using
                  extortion and electronic surveillance to cling to power.

                  The 64-year-old writer, who was soundly defeated by Fujimori in the 1990 presidential
                  election, called him a sophisticated version of Dominican Republic strongman Rafael
                  Leonidas Trujillo -- the subject of Vargas Llosa's latest novel, "The Goat's Party."

                  While Trujillo resorted to murder and torture to hang onto power for three decades
                  until his 1961 assassination, Fujimori uses surveillance, blackmail, and threats of
                  expropriating property to silence critics and maintain authoritarian control over
                  Peruvians, the author said.

                  Unlike Trujillo, Fujimori uses tactics that are "invisible, and cannot be proven or
                  demonstrated" in order to maintain a democratic facade and avoid international
                  isolation, Vargas Llosa said.

                  The novelist's loss to Fujimori in 1990 initiated a decade in power for Fujimori
                  that he hopes to extend to 15 years in this month's presidential runoff. Vargas
                  Llosa, in only his third visit to Peru in the last eight years, said one of the reasons
                  he returned was to express support for Fujimori's opponent, economist Alejandro
                  Toledo, in the May 28 election.

                  "We can put an end to these eight years of an authoritarian regime that has made
                  our country the exception to the rule," the author said.

                  Eight years ago, Fujimori shut down Congress and the courts, saying they were
                  crippling his efforts to defeat leftist rebels and impose free-market reforms to
                  end economic chaos. Vargas Llosa, who now lives in London, denied charges by
                  Fujimori's defenders that his allegations against Fujimori stem from bitterness
                  over his election defeat.

                  "The truth is Peruvians did me a favor by returning me to my writer's desk in
                  1990 because only good things have happened to me as a writer," he said.

                  "I learned a lot of things about my country," he said, referring to his time on the
                  campaign trail. "I also learned a lot about myself. I learned I wasn't a politician."