Albert Fujimori, former president of Peru, died at the age of 86, after a long battle with cancer. The news was confirmed by his children through a message posted on the X account of Keiko Fujimori, also a politician and president of the party "Forza Popolare": "After a long battle against cancer, our father Alberto Fujimori has just left to meet the Lord. We ask those who appreciated him to accompany us with a prayer for the eternal rest of his soul. Thank you very much, Dad!". The Peruvian government declared three days of national mourning in his honour.
Known by the nickname of “El Chino”, despite his Japanese origins, Fujimori leaves behind acontroversial legacy. A divisive figure in Peruvian history, he is remembered by many as the president who saved the country from economic ruin and from the threat of rebel groups, but also as the leader who established a authoritarian regime, marked by violence and abuses of power.
Fujimori: The Rise to Power
Born in Lima on July 28, 1938, from a Japanese immigrant family, Fujimori graduated with a degree in engineering and became an academic before embarking on a political career. In 1990, unexpectedly, won the presidential elections beating the writer Mario Vargas Llosa in the run-off. Peru, at that time, was in the grip of a serious economic crisis, with runaway inflation and a strong threat of destabilization by leftist rebel groups, including Sendero Luminoso and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).
Fujimori's first term was marked by profound economic reforms aimed at stabilizing the country. Through market liberalization and a policy of austerity, he managed to stop inflation and revive the economy. The threat of domestic terrorism continued to loom over his government and so the president decided to take extraordinary measures.
The authoritarian drift
In 1992, Fujimori dissolved the Congress under the pretext of gaining the control needed to address the internal crisis and the threat of the guerrillas. Governing by decree, established an authoritarian regime which was based on the military control and the use of force to repress opposition movements. It was during this period that some of the darkest episodes of his government occurred.
Between 1991 and 1992, Grupo Colina, a secret unit of the Peruvian army responsible for fighting against Sendero Luminoso, carried out indiscriminate massacres against suspected rebels and innocent civilians. The most notorious cases were the Barrios Altos Massacre, where 15 people were killed, including an eight-year-old child, and that of La Cantuta, where nine university students and a professor were kidnapped and killed. Episodes that constituted the basis for future charges of crimes against humanity which would have marked the decline of Fujimori.
The decline and the escape
Despite accusations of authoritarianism and scandals that began to emerge, Fujimori ran again in the 2000 presidential election. His re-election was marked by controversy, allegations of fraud and the emergence of a scandal linked to his secret service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was filmed bribing opposition members. With his political credibility in tatters, Fujimori decided to flee to Japan, the country of his parents, from where he resigned from the presidency with a fax sent from Tokyo.
For several years, Fujimori remained in Japan, despite Peru's requests for his extradition. In 2005, the former president he was arrested in Chile while trying to organize a comeback in politics. Extradited to Peru in 2007, he was on trial for corruption, human rights violations and abuse of power.
Conviction for crimes against humanity
In 2009, Fujimori was Sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity, especially for his role in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres, as well as for kidnappings and torture. The sentence represented a turning point in Peruvian history, as it was one of the first cases in which a former head of state was convicted of human rights violations in Latin America.
In 2017, former president received grace by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for health reasons, but the decision was overturned the following year. In 2023, however, the Peruvian Constitutional Court ordered his permanent release for humanitarian reasons.
Despite the prison, Fujimori has maintained a strong political influence. His daughter Keiko Fujimori followed in his footsteps, running for president three times, in 2011, 2016 and 2021, but never managed to win. A leader of the Peruvian opposition, Keiko had announced in July his intention to nominate his father, through his party Fuerza Popular, to presidential election of 2026.
A controversial legacy
The figure of Alberto Fujimori has left a indelible mark in the history of Peru. For his supporters, he is the man who saved the country from economic ruin and defeated left-wing terrorism, while for his detractors, he is a dictator who ruled with brutality, establishing an authoritarian regime and violating human rights.
Fujimori embodied theambiguity of Latin American politics: a leader capable of great reforms but also of ruthless and controversial decisions. With his death, an important chapter closes for Peru, a country still divided between the memory of a president who brought stability and the awareness of having lived under a regime of violence and repression.
