LIMA, Sept 11 (Askume) – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who promoted economic growth in the 1990s but was later blamed for abuses during a bloody war against Maoist rebels, was executed for human rights abuses on Wednesday at the age of 86.
Some close associates met him during the day and informed that his condition was serious.
“After a long battle with cancer, our father… has gone to see God,” his daughter Keiko Fujimori wrote in a message on Instagram. The former leader’s other children also signed the message.
Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was president of a little-known agricultural university when he was elected in 1990. He soon established himself as a shrewd politician whose hands-on style delivered results, even as he angered critics with his desire to centralize power.
He ended hyperinflation that had left millions of Peruvians unemployed, privatized dozens of state-owned enterprises and cut trade tariffs, setting the stage for what has become one of the most stable economies in Latin America in some time.
Under his supervision, the feared Maoist Shining Path leader, Abimael Guzmán, was captured – a significant sign of a movement that came close to overthrowing the Peruvian state in the 1980s. Guzmán died in prison in September 2021.
But many Peruvians see Fujimori as a dictator because he used military tanks to shut down Congress in 1992 and changed the constitution to his liking, imposing free-market reforms and tough anti-terrorism laws.
Public opinion also turned against him due to several corruption scandals during his 10 years in power.
Shortly after he won a third election in 2000 by amending the constitution, footage emerged of his top adviser and spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos distributing cash to politicians. Fujimori went into exile in Japan.
He resigned via fax from Tokyo and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Japanese Senate.
Montesinos was later arrested and jailed in Venezuela after hundreds of videos surfaced showing him offering bribes to politicians, businessmen, and media executives.
The number of cases against Fujimori is growing, including allegations that he ordered the use of death squads against Shining Path militants.
Fujimori is safe in Japan – he has dual citizenship and Japan does not extradite its citizens. Many were surprised when he decided to return to Peru in 2005 in hopes of apologizing and returning to politics.
Instead, he was detained while in Chile and extradited to Peru in 2007, where he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009.
“Fuji Shock”
After his imprisonment, Fujimori’s public appearances were limited to hospital visits, where he often appeared disheveled and unwell.
Although critics saw Fujimori’s health problems as a ploy to get out of prison, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski briefly pardoned Fujimori in 2017.
Months later, Kuczynski was impeached and Peru’s Supreme Constitutional Court annulled his pardon, after which Fujimori was sent back to a special prison where he and no other prisoners were held.
The court reinstated the pardon, freeing Fujimori, who suffered from gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, and tongue cancer, in December 2023. In May 2024, Fujimori announced he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor.
Fujimori’s legacy has been defended most strongly by his daughter Keiko, who came close to winning the presidency three times, including by forgiving her father and defending his constitution.
Supporters gathered outside Fujimori’s official residence to mourn and pray on Wednesday night.
“Today I desperately need a leader,” said Cesar Valverde, a Fujimori supporter. “He should have been president again; we were trying to make Alberto Fujimori president again, but God took him away.”
Keiko said in July that her father planned to run for president again in the 2026 election.
The late Fujimori was born in Lima on July 28, 1938, Peru’s Independence Day.
Fujimori, a mathematician and agricultural engineer, was not a political man when he decided to run for president. He once drove a tractor to campaign rallies. He stunned the world by defeating famous writer Mario Vargas Llosa in the 1990 election. He has strong support from the left.
He promotes himself as an alternative to the country’s white elite and has strong support from Peru’s large indigenous and mestizo populations.
While Peru grapples with the world’s worst inflation, Fujimori promised not to take any drastic measures to control it.
But in his second week in office, he abruptly ended the subsidies that had kept food prices low, in what became known as the “Fuji Shock”.
“God bless us,” Finance Minister Fujimori said on television after announcing the measure. Inflation worsened in the short term, but the strategy succeeded and the economy finally stabilized after more than a decade of crisis.
Even as support for him began to wane, Fujimori took bold action during his second term.
In 1997, he planned to dig a tunnel underneath the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima to end a four-month hostage crisis involving another terrorist group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which held 500 people for 126 days.
In a surprise attack, Fujimori sent in over 100 commandos and killed all 14 rebels.
Only two commandos and one of the remaining 72 hostages were killed. Television footage showed Fujimori calmly stepping over the bodies of the rebels after the attack.
Fujimori was married twice. He named his daughter Keiko because of public disagreements with his first wife Susana Higuchi during his tenure as president. The couple also has three children, including politician Kenji Fujimori.
