Alberto Fujimori

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Fujimori and the second or
maternal family name is Inomoto.
Alberto Fujimori
Al Fujimori.jpg
Fujimori in October 1998
President of Peru[a]
In office
28 July 1990 � 22 November 2000
Prime Minister
See list
Vice President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Preceded by Alan Garc�a
Succeeded by Valent�n Paniagua
Personal details
Born Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto
28 July 1938 (age 82)
Lima, Peru
Nationality
Peruvian
Japanese
Political party
Cambio 90 (1990�1998)
Vamos Vecino (1998�2005)
S� Cumple (2005�2010)
People's New Party (2007�2013)
Other political
affiliations
New Majority (non-affiliated member/1992�1998)
Peru 2000 (1999�2001)
Alliance for the Future (2005�2010)
Change 21 (2018�2019)
Spouse(s)
Susana Higuchi
?
?(m. 1974; div. 1994)?
Satomi Kataoka ?(m. 2006)?[1]
Children 4, including Keiko and Kenji
Relatives Santiago Fujimori (brother)
Education
Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
University of Strasbourg
University of Wisconsin�Milwaukee
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto[2] (Spanish: [al'�e?to fuxi'mo?i] or [fu?i'mo?i];
Japanese: [???i?mo?i] or [???i?mo?i]; Japanese: ?? ??, ???? ??? Kataoka Kenya; born
28 July 1938)[3][4] is a former Peruvian engineer and politician who served as the
President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until his downfall on 22 November 2000. A
controversial figure in Peruvian politics, his government is credited with the
creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's
macroeconomic stability.[5][6][7][8] Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru
for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses.[9][10]
Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his
presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in
that period.[11]
A Peruvian of Japanese descent,[12] Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with
charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his
presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by Congress, which preferred
to remove him from office by the process of impeachment by a 62-9 vote. Wanted in
Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-
imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005.[13] He was
extradited to face criminal charges in Peru on 22 September 2007.[14] In December
2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was
sentenced to six years imprisonment.[15][16][17] The Supreme Court upheld the
decision upon his appeal.[18] In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights
violations and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for his role in killings and
kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against
leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel,
marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home
country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically
found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.[19][20][21][22]
[23]

In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for
embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to
his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.[24] Two months later, he
pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year
term.[25] Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to
be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984�2004.[26] Under
Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of
imprisonment remained 25 years.[27]

In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori
a humanitarian pardon.[28] The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court on 3
October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison.[29] On 23 January 2019,
Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence[30] with his pardon
formally being annulled three weeks later on 13 February 2019.[31]

Contents
1 Early life, education, and early career
2 Presidency
2.1 First term
2.2 Constitutional crisis
2.3 Authoritarian period
2.4 Second term
2.5 Third term
3 Counterterrorism efforts
4 Human rights violations
5 Resignation, arrest, and trial
5.1 Further trials
5.2 Pardon requests
6 Legacy
6.1 Economic achievements
6.2 Criticism
6.3 Support
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Early life, education, and early career
According to government records, Fujimori was born on 28 July 1938, in Miraflores,
a district of Lima.[32] His parents, Naoichi Fujimori (original surname Minami,
adopted by a childless relative; 1897�1971) and Mutsue Inomoto Fujimori
(1913�2009), were natives of Kumamoto, Japan, who migrated to Peru in 1934.[33][34]

In July 1997, the news magazine Caretas alleged that Fujimori had actually been
born in Japan, in his father's hometown of Kawachi, Kumamoto Prefecture.[35]
Because Peru's constitution requires the president to have been born in Peru, this
would have made Fujimori ineligible to be president.[33] The magazine, which had
been sued for libel by Vladimiro Montesinos seven years earlier,[36] reported that
Fujimori's birth and baptismal certificates might have been altered.[35] Caretas
also alleged that Fujimori's mother declared having two children when she entered
Peru;[35] Fujimori is the second of four children.[37] Caretas' contentions were
hotly contested in the Peruvian media; the magazine S�, for instance, described the
allegations as "pathetic" and "a dark page for [Peruvian] journalism".[38] Latin
American scholars Cynthia McClintock and Fabi�n Vallas note that the issue appeared
to have died down among Peruvians after the Japanese government announced in 2000
that "Fujimori's parents had registered his birth in the Japanese consulate in
Lima".[33] The Japanese government determined that he was also a Japanese citizen
because of his parents' registration.[39]

Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Se�ora de la

Merced[40] and La Rectora.[41] Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was
baptized and raised Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home,
Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at
school.[42] In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte
in Lima.[43]

He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina

in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The
following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to
study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship,
Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin�Milwaukee[44] in the United
States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.

In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children,
including a daughter, Keiko, and a son, Kenji, who would later follow their father
into politics.

In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the

Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed
him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987,
Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University
Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He
also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned
network, Channel 7.[45]

Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the
banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") defeating world-renowned writer Mario
Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with
outgoing president Alan Garc�a and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance
party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with
the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for
neoliberal economic reforms.[46]

During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to
"Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in
Peru, as elsewhere in Spanish Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately.
Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always
gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection.[47] With his
election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become
leader of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista (varied descent) of Cuba
and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur
Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname.[48]

Presidency
First term
Main article: 1990 Peruvian general election
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms,
known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan Garc�a, the economy had entered a
period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the
country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos".[49] It
was Fujimori's stated objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance.
This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more
drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed.[50] Nonetheless, the Fujishock
succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate
social cost.[51]

Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced

government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls,
and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital.[51] Tariffs were
radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the
government established a $400 million poverty relief fund.[51] The latter seemed to
anticipate the economic agony to come: the price of electricity quintupled, water
prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices 3,000%.[50][51]

However, many do not attribute the Fujishock to Fujimori. In the 1980s, the IMF
created a plan for South American economies called the Washington Consensus. The
document, written by John Williamson in 1990, consists of ten measures that would
lead to a healthy economic policy. Under pressure from the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), the Peruvian government was to follow the guidelines set by the
international finance community. The ten points were fiscal discipline, the
reordering of public expenditure, tax reform (broadening), the liberalization of
interest rates, the establishment of a competitive exchange rate, trade
liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization,
deregulation of barrier entry, exit, safety regulations, governed prices, and the
establishment of property rights for the informal sector.[52]

The IMF was content with Peru's measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru.[53]
Inflation rapidly began to fall and foreign investment capital flooded in.[53] The
privatization campaign involved selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises,
and replacing the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol.[49]
The Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a
considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s.[54] In 1994, the Peruvian
economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.[54]

Constitutional crisis
Main article: 1992 Peruvian constitutional crisis
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO,
remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty of
combatting the Maoist Shining Path (Spanish: Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla
organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism
in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the
electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the
same poll.[55]

In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military,
on 5 April 1992, carried out a self-coup,[56] also known as the autogolpe (auto-
coup) or Fujigolpe (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the
constitution, and purged the judiciary.[57]
According to numerous polls, the coup was welcomed by the public[58] as evidenced
by favorable public opinion in several independent polls; in fact, public approval
of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup.[58]
[59] Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he
characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary� a search
for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective
democracy."[58] Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more
than "a deceptive formality � a fa�ade".[58] He claimed the coup was necessary in
order to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him
from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which Garc�a had left it.[60]

Fujimori's coup was immediately met with near-unanimous condemnation from the
international community.[58] The Organization of American States denounced the coup
and demanded a return to "representative democracy",[61] despite Fujimori's claim
that the coup represented a "popular uprising".[58] Foreign ministers of OAS member
states reiterated this condemnation of the autogolpe.[59] They proposed an urgent
effort to promote the reestablishment of "the democratic institutional order" in
Peru.[62] Negotiations between the OAS, the government, and opposition groups led
Alberto Fujimori initially to propose a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, but the
OAS rejected this. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic
Constituent Congress (CCD), which would draft a new constitution to be ratified by
a national referendum. Despite a lack of consensus among political forces in Peru
regarding this proposal, an ad hoc OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless endorsed
this scenario in mid-May. Elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress were
held on 22 November 1992.[59]

Various states individually condemned the coup. Venezuela broke off diplomatic
relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in
requesting Peru's suspension from the Organization of American States.
International lenders delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States,
Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to
threaten the reinsertion strategy for economic recovery, and complicated the
process of clearing Peru's arrears with the International Monetary Fund.

Peruvian�U.S. relations earlier in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by

questions of coca eradication and Fujimori's initial reluctance to sign an accord
to increase his military's eradication efforts in the lowlands. Fujimori's
autogolpe became a major obstacle to relations, as the United States immediately
suspended all military and economic aid, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and
humanitarian funds.[63] Two weeks after the self-coup, however, the George H.W.
Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the
legitimate leader of Peru, partly because he was willing to implement economic
austerity measures, but also because of his adamant opposition to the Shining Path.
[64]

Authoritarian period
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA leader Alan Garc�a exiled to Colombia, Fujimori
sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic
Constitutional Congress, to serve as a legislature and as a constituent assembly.
The APRA and Popular Action attempted a boycott of this election, but the Christian
People�s Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP, Partido Comunista del Peru, or
"Peruvian Communist Party") and many left-leaning parties participated in this
election. Fujimori supporters won a majority of the seats in this body, and drafted
a new constitution in 1993. In a referendum, the coup and the Constitution of 1993
were approved by a narrow margin of less than five percent.[65]

On 13 November 1993, General Jaime Salinas led a failed military coup. Salinas
asserted that his intentions were to turn Fujimori over to be tried for violating
the Peruvian constitution.[66]

In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public
divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994,
appointing their eldest daughter as First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly
denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt.
They formally divorced in 1995.

In Fujimori's first term of office, over 3,000 Peruvians were killed in political
murders.[67][context needed]

Second term
Main article: 1995 Peruvian general election

Fujimori during the Peruvian general election in April 1995

The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995,
at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-
thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former UN Secretary-General Javier P�rez de
Cu�llar, won only 21 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable
majority in the newly unicameral Congress. One of the first acts of the new
congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or
police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.[68]

During his second term, Fujimori along with Ecuadorian President Sixto Dur�n
Ball�n, signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had
simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain
international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some
issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, which had been unresolved since the
1929 Treaty of Lima.[69]

The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians began to be
more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn
in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and
reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him
"Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet.[70] Modeling his rule after Pinochet, Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this
nickname.[71]

According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in

1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.[72]
[73][74]

In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming

increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved
Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro
Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces,
with Financial Times stating that "[i]n no other country in Latin America did a
president have so much control over the armed forces".[67]

A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone later suggested that Fujimori was
involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women between
1996 and 2000, as part of a population control program.[10] A 2004 World Bank
publication said that in this period Montesinos' abuse of the power Fujimori
granted him "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".[75]

Third term
Main article: 2000 Peruvian general election
The 1993 constitution limited a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori
began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic
interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A
1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed.[76] In late 1999, Fujimori
announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were
politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term
restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.
[77]

Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral
runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just
short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%�20,000
votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the
international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary
opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the
runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru).
International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay
the runoff.

In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the total votes. While votes for Toledo
declined from 37.0% of the total votes cast in the first round to 17.7% of the
votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 8.1% of the total votes cast
in the first round to 31.1% of total votes in the second round.[78] The large
percentage of invalid votes in this election suggests that many Peruvians took
Toledo's advice and spoiled their ballots.

Candidate Party First round Second round

Votes % Votes %
Alberto Fujimori Peru 2000 5,528,568 49.9 6,041,685 74.3
Alejandro Toledo Possible Peru 4,460,895 40.2 2,086,215 25.7
Other candidates 1,096,407 9.9
Invalid or blank votes 980,359 � 3,672,410 �
Although Fujimori won the runoff with only a bare majority (but 3/4 valid votes),
rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third
swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations
in front of the presidential palace. As a conciliatory gesture, Fujimori appointed
former opposition candidate Federico Salas as prime minister. However, opposition
parties in Congress refused to support this move, and Toledo campaigned vigorously
to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving
Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14
September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of
Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for defecting to
Fujimori's Peru 2000 party. The video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of
the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's
closest allies[who?] (nicknamed by the Peruvian press El Patriota).

Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a

nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections, in which
he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to
hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to
Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November,
Valent�n Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori
leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei
to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. Congress refused
to accept his resignation, instead voting 62�9 to remove Fujimori from office on
the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."

On 19 November, government ministers presented their resignations en bloc. Because

Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, who had broken with Fujimori and
resigned a few days earlier, his successor second vice president Ricardo M�rquez
Flores came to claim the presidency. Congress, however, refused to recognize him,
as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; M�rquez resigned two days later. Paniagua
was next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April 2001 elections.

Counterterrorism efforts
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Main article: Internal conflict in Peru
See also: Tarata bombing and Japanese embassy hostage crisis
When Fujimori came to power, much of Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent
group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist�Leninist group T�pac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In 1989, 25% of Peru's district and provincial
councils opted not to hold elections, owing to a persistent campaign of
assassination, over the course of which over 100 officials had been killed by the
Shining Path in that year alone. That same year, more than one-third of Peru's
courts lacked a justice of the peace due to Shining Path intimidation. Labor union
leaders and military officials were also assassinated throughout the 1980s.[79]

Areas where Shining Path was active in Peru.

By the early 1990s, some parts of the country were under the control of the
insurgents, in territories known as "zonas liberadas" ("liberated zones"), where
inhabitants lived under the rule of these groups and paid them taxes.[80] When the
Shining Path arrived in Lima, it organized "paros armados" ("armed strikes"), which
were enforced by killings and other forms of violence. The leadership of the
Shining Path largely consisted of university students and teachers.[81] Two
previous governments, those of Fernando Bela�nde Terry and Alan Garc�a, at first
neglected the threat posed by the Shining Path, then launched an unsuccessful
military campaign to eradicate it, undermining public faith in the state and
precipitating an exodus of elites.[82]

By 1992, Shining Path guerrilla attacks had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives over
preceding 12 years. On 16 July 1992 the Tarata Bombing, in which several car bombs
exploded in Lima's wealthiest district, killed over 40 people; the bombings were
characterized by one commentator as an "offensive to challenge President Albert
Fujimori."[83] The bombing at Tarata was followed up with a "weeklong wave of car
bombings ... Bombs hit banks, hotels, schools, restaurants, police stations and
shops ... [G]uerrillas bombed two rail bridges from the Andes, cutting off some of
Peru's largest copper mines from coastal ports."[84]

Fujimori has been credited by many Peruvians[who?] with ending the fifteen-year
insurgency of the Shining Path. As part of his anti-insurgency efforts, Fujimori
granted the military broad powers to arrest suspected insurgents and try them in
secret military courts with few legal rights. This measure has often been
criticized for compromising the fundamental democratic and human right to an open
trial wherein the accused faces the accuser. Fujimori contended that these measures
were both justified and also necessary. Members of the judiciary were too afraid to
charge the alleged insurgents, and judges and prosecutors had very legitimate fears
of reprisals against them or their families.[85] At the same time, Fujimori's
government armed rural Peruvians, organizing them into groups known as "rondas
campesinas" ("peasant patrols").

Insurgent activity was in decline by the end of 1992,[86] and Fujimori took credit
for this abatement, claiming that his campaign had largely eliminated the insurgent
threat. After the 1992 auto-coup, the intelligence work of the DINCOTE (National
Counter-Terrorism Directorate) led to the capture of the leaders from MRTA and the
Shining Path, including notorious Shining Path leader Abimael Guzm�n. Guzm�n's
capture was a political coup for Fujimori, who used it to great effect in the
press; in an interview with documentarian Ellen Perry, Fujimori even notes that he
specially ordered Guzm�n's prison jumpsuit to be white with black stripes, to
enhance the image of his capture in the media.[87]

Critics charge that to achieve the defeat of the Shining Path, the Peruvian
military engaged in widespread human rights abuses, and that the majority of the
victims were poor highland countryside inhabitants caught in a crossfire between
the military and insurgents. The final report of the Peruvian Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, published on 28 August 2003, brought out that Peruvian
armed forces were also guilty of destroying villages and murdering countryside
inhabitants whom they suspected of supporting insurgents.

The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996, when fourteen MRTA
militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party,
taking hostage some four hundred diplomats, government officials, and other
dignitaries. The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru. During
the four-month standoff, the Emerretistas gradually freed all but 72 of their
hostages. The government rejected the militants' demand to release imprisoned MRTA
members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence, while
stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers.[88]

On 22 April 1997, a team of military commandos, codenamed "Chav�n de Huantar",

raided the building. One hostage, two military commandos, and all 14 MRTA
insurgents were killed in the operation.[89] Images of President Fujimori at the
ambassador's residence during and after the military operation, surrounded by
soldiers and liberated dignitaries, and walking among the corpses of the
insurgents, were widely televised. The conclusion of the four-month-long standoff
was used by Fujimori and his supporters to bolster his image as tough on terrorism.
[90]

Human rights violations

See also: Barrios Altos massacre, La Cantuta massacre, and Operation Chav�n de
Hu�ntar
Several organizations criticized Fujimori's methods against the Shining Path and
the MRTA. Amnesty International said "the widespread and systematic nature of human
rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Albert
Fujimori (1990�2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international
law."[91] Fujimori's alleged association with death squads is currently[when?]
being studied by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the court accepted
the case of "Cantuta vs Per�".[citation needed]

The 1991 Barrios Altos massacre by members of the death squad Grupo Colina, made up
solely of members of the Peruvian armed forces, was one of the crimes that Peru
cited in its request to Japan for his extradition in 2003.

From 1996 to 2000, the Fujimori government oversaw a massive forced sterilization
campaign known as "Voluntary Surgical Contraception." The United Nations and other
international aid agencies supported this campaign. USAID provided funding and
training until it was exposed by objections by churches and human rights groups.
[92] The Nippon Foundation, headed by Ayako Sono, a Japanese novelist and personal
friend of Fujimori, supported as well.[93][94] Over 215,000 people, mostly women,
entirely indigenous, were forced or threatened into sterilization and 16,547 men
were forced to undergo vasectomies during these years, most of them without a
proper anesthetist, in contrast to 80,385 sterilizations and 2,795 vasectomies over
the previous three years.[10]

The success of the military operation in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was
tainted by subsequent allegations that at least three and possibly eight of the
insurgents were summarily executed by the commandos after surrendering. In 2002,
the case was taken up by public prosecutors, but the Peruvian Supreme Court ruled
that the military tribunals had jurisdiction. A military court later absolved them
of guilt, and the "Chav�n de Huantar" soldiers led the 2004 military parade. In
response, in 2003 MRTA family members lodged a complaint with the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the Peruvian state of human rights
violations, namely that the MRTA insurgents had been denied the "right to life, the
right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection". The IACHR
accepted the case and is currently[when?] studying it.[95] Peruvian Minister of
Justice Maria Zavala has stated that this verdict[clarification needed] by the
IACHR supports the Peruvian government's extradition of Fujimori from Chile. Though
the IACHR verdict does not directly implicate Fujimori, it does fault the Peruvian
government for its complicity in the 1992 Cantuta University killings.[96]

Resignation, arrest, and trial

Main article: Alberto Fujimori's arrest and trial
Alberto Fujimori left Peru in November 2000 to attend a regional summit in Brunei.
He then traveled on to Japan. Once there, he announced plans to remain in the
country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress.

After Congress rejected Fujimori's faxed resignation, they relieved Fujimori of his
duties as president and banned him from Peruvian politics for a decade. He remained
in self-imposed exile in Japan,[97] where he resided with his friend, the famous
Catholic novelist Ayako Sono.[98] Several senior Japanese politicians have
supported Fujimori,[99] partly because of his decisive action in ending the 1996-97
Japanese embassy crisis.

Alejandro Toledo, who assumed the Peruvian presidency in 2001, spearheaded the
criminal case against Fujimori. He arranged meetings with the Supreme Court, tax
authorities, and other powers in Peru to "coordinate the joint efforts to bring the
criminal Fujimori from Japan." His vehemence in this matter at times compromised
Peruvian law: forcing the judiciary and legislative system to keep guilty sentences
without hearing Fujimori's defense; not providing Fujimori with representation when
Fujimori was tried in absentia; and expelling pro-Fujimori congressmen from the
parliament without proof of the accusations against those congressmen. These
expulsions were later reversed by the judiciary.[100]

The Peruvian Congress authorized charges against Fujimori in August 2001. Fujimori
was alleged to be a coauthor, along with Vladimiro Montesinos, of the death-squad
killings at Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992, respectively.[101] At the
behest of Peruvian authorities, Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori on
charges that included murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, the Peruvian government found that Japan was not amenable to the
extradition of Fujimori; a protracted diplomatic debate ensued, when Japan showed
itself unwilling to accede to the extradition request. Fujimori had been granted
Japanese citizenship after his arrival in the country, and the Japanese government
maintained that Japanese citizens would not be extradited.[102]

In September 2003, Congressman Dora D�vila, joined by Minister of Health Luis

Soari, denounced Fujimori and several of his ministers for crimes against humanity,
for allegedly having overseen forced sterilizations during his regime. In November,
Congress approved an investigation of Fujimori's involvement in the airdrop of
Kalashnikov rifles into the Colombian jungle in 1999 and 2000 for guerrillas of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Fujimori maintained he had no
knowledge of the arms-trading, and blamed Montesinos. By approving the charges,
Congress lifted the immunity granted to Fujimori as a former president, so that he
could be criminally charged and prosecuted.

Congress also voted to support charges against Fujimori for the detention and
disappearance of 67 students from the central Andean city of Huancayo and the
disappearance of several residents from the northern coastal town of Chimbote
during the 1990s. It also approved charges that Fujimori mismanaged millions of
dollars from Japanese charities, suggesting that the millions of dollars in his
bank account were far too much to have been accumulated legally.[103]

In 2004, the Special Prosecutor established to investigate Fujimori released a

report alleging that the Fujimori administration had obtained US$2 billion though
graft.[104] Most of this money came from Vladimiro Montesinos' web of corruption.
[104] The Special Prosecutor's figure of two billion dollars is considerably higher
than the one arrived at by Transparency International, an NGO that studies
corruption. Transparency International listed Fujimori as having embezzled an
estimated US$600 million, which would rank seventh in the list of money embezzled
by heads of government active within 1984�2004.[26][105]

Fujimori dismissed the judicial proceedings underway against him as "politically

motivated", citing Toledo's involvement. Fujimori established a new political party
in Peru, S� Cumple, working from Japan. He hoped to participate in the 2006
presidential elections, but in February 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed
this possibility, because the ex-president was specifically barred by Congress from
holding any office for ten years. Fujimori saw the decision as unconstitutional, as
did his supporters such as ex-congressmembers Luz Salgado, Martha Ch�vez and Fern�n
Altuve, who argued it was a "political" maneuver and that the only body with the
authority to determine the matter was the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE).
Valent�n Paniagua disagreed, suggesting that the Constitutional Court finding was
binding and that "no further debate is possible".[106][107]

Fujimori's S� Cumple (roughly translated, "He Keeps His Word") received more than
10% in many country-level polls, contending with APRA for the second place slot,
[108] but did not participate in the 2006 elections after its participation in the
Alliance for the Future (initially thought as Alliance S� Cumple) had not been
allowed.

By March 2005, it appeared that Peru had all but abandoned its efforts to extradite
Fujimori from Japan. In September of that year, Fujimori obtained a new Peruvian
passport in Tokyo and announced his intention to run in the upcoming 2006 national
election.[102] He arrived in Chile in November 2005, but hours after his arrival
there he was arrested. Peru then requested his extradition.

While under house arrest in Chile, Fujimori announced plans to run in Japan's Upper
House elections in July 2007.[109] Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru in
September 2007.

On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights

abuses, declaring that the "charges against him have been proven beyond all
reasonable doubt".[110] The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina
death squad to commit the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La
Cantuta Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people,[111] as well as for
taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti
and businessman Samuel Dyer.[112][113] Fujimori's conviction is the only instance
of a democratically elected head of state being tried and convicted of human rights
abuses in his own country.[114] Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to
25 years in prison.[20] Likewise, the Court found him guilty of aggravated
kidnapping, under the aggravating circumstance of cruel treatment, to the detriment
of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The Special
Criminal Chamber determined that the sentence had expired on February 10, 2032.
[115] On January 2, 2010, the sentence to 25 years in prison for human rights
violations was confirmed.[116]
Further trials

Fujimori in September 2008.

He faced a third trial in July 2009 over allegations that he illegally gave $15
million in state funds to Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the National
Intelligence Service, during the two months prior to his fall from power. Fujimori
admitted paying the money to Montesinos but claimed that he had later paid back the
money to the state.[117] On 20 July, the court found him guilty of embezzlement and
sentenced him to a further seven and a half years in prison.[117][118]

A fourth trial took place in September 2009 in Lima.[118] Fujimori was accused of
using Montesinos to bribe and tap the phones of journalists, businessmen and
opposition politicians � evidence of which led to the collapse of his government in
2000.[118][119] Fujimori admitted the charges but claimed that the charges were
made to damage his daughter's presidential election campaign.[119] The prosecution
asked the court to sentence Fujimori to eight years imprisonment with a fine of
$1.6 million plus $1 million in compensation to ten people whose phones were
bugged.[119] Fujimori pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment
on 30 September 2009.[118] Under Peruvian law, all prison sentences run
concurrently.

On May 3, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Peru rejected the nullity of Alberto
Fujimori's conviction. Alberto Fujimori will continue to be sentenced for 25 years,
which was imposed on him for responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta
massacres.

Pardon requests
Main article: Pardon of Alberto Fujimori
Press reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer
and other medical problems. His family asked President Ollanta Humala for a pardon.
[120] President Humala rejected a pardon in 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition
was not serious enough to warrant it.[121] In July 2016, with three days left in
his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a
second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro
Pablo Kuczynski.[122][123] On 24 December 2017, President Kuczynski pardoned him on
health grounds.[124] Kuczynski's office stated that the hospitalized 79-year-old
Fujimori had a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". The pardon kicked
off at least two days of protests and led at least three congressmen to resign from
Kuczynski's party. A spokesman for Popular Force alleged there was a pact that, in
exchange for the pardon, Popular Force members helped Kuczynski fight ongoing
impeachment proceedings.[28]

On February 20, 2018, the National Criminal Chamber ruled that it did not apply the
resolution that granted Fujimori the right of grace for humanitarian reasons.
Therefore, the former president had to face the process for the Pativilca Case with
a simple appearance.[125]

On 3 October 2018, the Peruvian Supreme Court reversed Fujimori's pardon and
ordered his return to prison.[126] He was rushed to a hospital and returned to
prison on 23 January 2019.[30] His pardon was formally annulled on 13 February
2019.[31]

Legacy
Economic achievements
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after
the violence and hyperinflation of the Garc�a years. While it is generally agreed
that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-
term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly
debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial
"orthodox" phase (1990�92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a
"pragmatic" phase (1993�98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over
government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999�2000) dominated by a
clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure
Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with
its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.[127]

High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El
Ni�o" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late
1990s.[128] Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was
44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and
2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the
national statistics bureau[129] show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty
increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan Garc�a's term, but
decreased greatly (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore,
FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990�92 to 1997�99.
[130]

Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign
investment. The mass selloff of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some
service industries, notably local telephone, mobile telephone, and internet
services, respectively. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business
had to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed by the state-run
telephone company at a cost of $607 for a residential line.[131][132] A couple of
years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical
land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from
2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000,[133] and a dramatic decrease in the
wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before
privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization).[134] Privatization also
generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and
energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc
extraction projects at Antamina.[135]

By the end of the decade, Peru's international currency reserves were built up from
nearly zero at the end of Garc�a's term to almost US$10 billion. Fujimori also left
a smaller state bureaucracy and reduced government expenses (in contrast to the
historical pattern of bureaucratic expansion), a technically minded (but widely
perceived as politicized) administration of public entities like SUNAT (the tax
collection agency), a large number of new schools, not only in Lima but in Peru's
small towns, more roads and highways, and new and upgraded communications
infrastructure.[citation needed] These improvements led to a revival in tourism,
agroexport, industries and fisheries.[136][137]

Criticism
Detractors have observed that Fujimori was able to encourage large-scale mining
projects with foreign corporations and push through mining-friendly legislation
laws because the post auto-coup political picture greatly facilitated the process.

Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years actually
reflects a greater rate of extraction of nonrenewable resources by transnational
companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero
royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the
country.[138][139][140][141] Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a
role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.[142]

Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy and opposed

by many Peruvians. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist
opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised
through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small
fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.[citation needed]

The sole instance of organized labor's success in impeding reforms, namely the
teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of
organization and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.[127]

Some scholars claim that Fujimori's government became a "dictatorship" after the
auto-coup,[143] permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate
Montesinos, who now faces dozens of charges that range from embezzlement to drug
trafficking to murder (Montesinos is currently[when?] on trial in Lima).[144][145]
[146] Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist
authoritarianism". Numerous governments[147] and human rights organizations such as
Amnesty International, have welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human
rights charges.[148] As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what
he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and
Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting
civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
[149]

In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's
Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600
million, but despite years of incarceration and investigation, none of these
supposed stolen funds have ever been located in any bank account anywhere in the
world.[150][151]

Support
Fujimori did have support within Peru. The Universidad de Lima March 2003 poll,
taken while he was in Japan, found a 41% approval rating for his administration.
[152] A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigaci�n
de Ciencias Econ�micas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to
vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election.[153] A poll conducted on 25
November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating
of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency
efforts (53%).[154] An article from La Razon, a Peruvian newspaper, stated in 2003
that: "Fujimori is only guilty of one big crime and it is that of having been
successful in a country of failed politicians, creators of debt, builders of
mirages, and downright opportunistic."

According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains

public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures.
Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990�2000) has reportedly grown
(from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007).[citation needed] Despite accusations of
corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed
in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime.[citation needed] In a
2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao,
82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand
trial in Peru.[155]

The Lima-based newspaper Per� 21 ran an editorial noting that even though the
Universidad de Lima poll results indicate that four out of every five interviewees
believe that Fujimori is guilty of some of the charges against him, he still enjoys
at least 30% of popular support and enough approval to restart a political career.

In the 2006 congressional elections, his daughter Keiko was elected to the congress
with the highest vote count. She came in second place in the 2011 Peruvian
presidential election with 23.2% of the vote,[156] and lost the June runoff against
Ollanta Humala.[157] She again ran for President in the 2016 election, narrowly
losing the runoff to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.