The death of Alberto Fujimori, the deeply divisive former Peruvian president, comes amid a resurgence of interest in the former strongman — both from supporters and detractors.
And in some regards, the usual customs following the demise of a former leader were observed.
Politicians, relatives and defenders of Fujimori publicly expressed their condolences.
Peru’s government declared three days of national mourning during which the country’s Congress was suspended.
The flag was flown at half-mast.
But others rejoiced at news of his death; Fujimori was, after all a controversial figure in Peru, a country he led and then fled before being extradited back from Chile and serving time in prison for bribery and ordering the murder of 25 people.
As a scholar writing a book about human rights violations in Peru under Fujimori, I see Fujimori’s death from cancer at age 86 on September 11, as a reason to reflect on where Peru is now.
It is also an opportunity to express concern that any attempt to absolve the Fujimori legacy of its crimes may signal democratic backsliding.
Fujimori, whose parents came to Peru from Japan in 1934, was born four years later.
He studied agricultural engineering, and after graduation studied physics in France and mathematics in the US, before joining the faculty at Peru’s National Agrarian University.
Fujimori entered politics in 1990 as a member of a then new and marginal right-wing party Cambio 90.
Perceived as moderate, a rarity in the turbulent world of Peruvian politics, Fujimori took votes from parties at either end of the spectrum and emerged as one of the two leading candidates, facing off against well-known writer Mario Vargas Llosa.
Fujimori won and served as president for a decade, but even after being ousted from power in 2000, he remained a powerful presence in the country’s politics.
Fujimori came to power amid a major economic crisis marked by hyperinflation and the rise of left-wing guerrillas, the Shining Path, who threatened the country’s political, social and economic stability.
He called elections in 1995 and won again, but his democratic credentials were slipping badly by this stage, as freedom of expression was curtailed and various allegations of criminal behaviour were levelled.
In 2000 Fujimori, dubiously, won his third election, despite constitutional questions about whether he could even legally run and grave doubts about the accuracy of the count.
Corruption allegations continued to swirl and later that year Fujimori fled to Japan.
He was arrested in Chile in 2005 and extradited to Peru in 2007 to answer for his part in human rights violations — an 69,000 Peruvians were killed or disappeared before and during his presidency.
The state was responsible for 37% of the deaths and disappearances, according to a subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The most emblematic crimes took place during Fujimori’s first term, between 1990 and 1995.
They included the massacre of civilians in Lima’s Barrios Altos neighbourhood in 1991, the forced disappearance and murder of nine students and one professor from Lima’s La Cantuta University in 1992, and the kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer.
As a result of these incidents and other violations, Fujimori was tried and then convicted of crimes against humanity in 2009.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Fujimori’s supporters called for him to be pardoned — and succeeded twice.
Former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted one pardon in 2017, and President Dina Boluarte granted the other in December 2023.
Both pardons sparked nationwide protests among Peruvians, many of whom believed that Fujimori should have remained behind bars for the rest of his life.
His death has coincided with new legal investigations into human rights abuses, including allegations that his administration forced thousands of indigenous Peruvian women to be sterilised and reportedly disguised this campaign as a family planning initiative.
The ongoing probe implicated both Fujimori and his former health ministers.
A court case over the Fujimori administration’s forced sterilisation campaign, Celia Edith Ramos v Peru, is now pending at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.
Despite his many legal woes, many Peruvians still revered him till the end. Just months before Fujimori died, lawmakers passed a law placing a statute of limitations on crimes against humanity.
The law prohibits anyone accused of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes before July 1, 2002, from being prosecuted, sentenced or punished.
Keiko Fujimori, his daughter and political heir, is head of the right-wing Fuerza Popular Party which promulgated the amnesty law.
She lost presidential bids in 2011, 2016 and 2021, but is expected to make a fourth attempt in 2026. — The Conversation/Agencies
• Nusta Carranza Ko is an associate professor of global affairs and human security, University of Baltimore
