Who Is Fujimori & What Has He Done for Peru?

Alberto Fujimori is one of the most controversial figures in modern South American politics. The Japanese-Peruvian was the president of Peru during the 1990's. Fujimori accomplished great things for Peru, but he also subverted his own democracy and became an authoritarian tyrant. He is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for abusing his presidential powers.

Time Frame

Alberto Fujimori was president of Peru from July 28, 1990 to November 17, 2000. He is currently serving a prison sentence there, which will conclude on December 11, 2013. However, he is also facing further charges, and additional convictions may prolong his prison stay.

History

A university professor, rector and TV host until 1989, Fujimori was a dark horse candidate for president in 1990. He defeated internationally renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in what was a major electoral upset.

During his first term in office, President Fujimori enacted a wide range of rightist, market-oriented economic reforms and government budget cuts that were collectively dubbed "Fujishock." At the same time, he recognized what the effects of his liberalization of price controls and capital restrictions would do to the economy in the short-term, so as a part of the program he quadrupled the minimum wage and established a major poverty relief fund. His objective was to combat the prevailing state of hyperinflation and economic difficulty. He also started a new strategy of getting tough with Peru's longtime insurgency, the Maoist Shining Path.

While Fujimori won the Presidential election, his defeated rivals retained control of Congress and sought to block all his initiatives. This obstructionism was deeply unpopular with the Peruvian people, so Fujimori responded with a coup in April 1992. He suspended the constitution, dismissed Congress, and purged the judiciary. The coup met with widespread condemnation from the international community, who had previously approved of Fujimori's government and its policies. New elections were held and a new constitution promulgated in 1993, but these offered little legitimacy to Fujimori's illegal actions.

Under the new constitution, Fujimori ran for President again and easily defeated former Secretary-General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1995. It was the high point of Fujimori's domestic popularity, which declined from that point on as his restrictions on press freedoms and allegations of corruption and human rights abuses began to tar his regime.

Although his own 1993 Constitution limited him to two terms, Fujimori had this amended to allow him to seek a third. Fujimori narrowly failed to win an outright majority on the first ballot in 2000, which was tarred by some allegations of tampering. In the run-off election, he barely improved on his performance, winning just 51% of the vote, a gain of a mere 1.2%. That was indicative of widespread, hardened public opposition to his regime. Shortly after this anemic victory, a corruption scandal involving Fujimori's crony and intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos erupted.

With the situation in Peru rapidly turning against him, Alberto Fujimori left an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Brunei for Japan, where he resigned office and sought refuge. He lived in self-imposed exile there until he foolishly traveled to Chile in 2005, where he was detained and extradited back to Peru. Once there, he was indicted and convicted for abuse of his office, and he currently faces charges for the human rights abuses of his government.

Misconceptions

A common misconception about Alberto Fujimori is that he was a Japanese immigrant to Peru. In fact, he was born in Lima to Japanese parents, and is a second-generation immigrant. So, while he is ethnically 100% Japanese, he was born and raised in Peru.

Significance

Economically, Fujimori's government was largely a success. He brought an end to the economic malaise and hyperinflation that characterized the years preceding his government. The government bureaucracy was reduced in size, but more schools and roads were built. The Fujimori era was generally a time of economic growth, and the treasury went from a foreign currency reserve of literally zero to roughly $10 billion US. Even Peru's terrible poverty rate declined slightly, from 55% of the population to 54%. Among the poor, malnutrition dropped by a quarter.

When Fujimori came to power, Peru was wracked by the Shining Path and other leftists insurgencies. The Shining Path was Maoist guerrilla-cum-terrorist group that ran its operations on funding from the cocaine trade, and the most important of the country's insurgent groups.. The collective insurgency was such a menace that over 1/3 of the country's judicial seats and 1/4 of its districts could not hold elections, due to intimidation and violence. Fujimori granted the military and intelligence services broad powers to attack the guerrillas. In 1992, the leader of the Shining Path was captured. The overall campaign reached its crescendo following the December 1996 seizure of the Japanese Embassy by MRTA terrorists. In April 1997, the military raided the compound, resulting in the deaths of 1 hostage, 2 commandos, and all 14 terrorists. After that, guerrilla activity in Peru went into steep decline, and Alberto Fujimori is credited with the defeat of the leftist insurgency and terrorism that ruled Peru for two decades.

Aberto Fujimori also settled a long-standing border dispute with Ecuador.

Effects

Fujimori's disregard for human rights during his campaign against Peru's leftist guerrillas has been widely condemned. The highlights of these abuses were the 1991 Barrios Altos massacre, performed by a military right-wing death squad; the forced sterilization of 300,000 poor women under a family planning program that scandalously met with widespread international support at the time; and the murder and torture of those suspected of being Shining Path supporters. He is also tainted by the corruption of members of his government, particularly former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, however no substantial corruption allegations have been made against Fujimori himself.

However, first and foremost among the negative effects of Fujimori's government, and in fact at the root of all the other criticisms of his regime, were his overthrow of democracy and and his subsequent authoritarian rule. Although there were elections in Peru, there is little doubt that Fujimori ruled as a strongman and tyrant, suppressing his critics and making a general mockery of the rule of law. The abuse of press freedoms, political rights, human rights, and corruption would have been impossible or at least less extreme had his government not been a de facto authoritarian regime.

Considerations

Fujimori remains popular among the Peruvian populace, with almost half the respondents in a 2007 poll showing approval for the policies and results of the Fujimori years.