It is happening against a backdrop of grinding poverty that shows no signs of abating, at a time when other Latin American nations are enjoying a degree of economic recovery. Peru, a country more than ten times the size of the UK, has a population of almost 24 million. More than seven million of its inhabitants live in Lima, one of South America's most crowded cities. Most of its residents have migrated from impoverished towns and villages in the Andes, where communities eke out a meagre living from smallholdings, using farming methods not seen in Britain since the 19th century. Lima is ringed by shanty towns, with homes made from sheets of corrugated iron or esteras, made from matted reeds.
Sanitation is non-existent.
These swarming masses turned to Fujimori in 1990, when the hitherto unknown agronomist emerged as a presidential candidate with a promise to sweep away the old political elite with a new style of government. His Japanese origins became an asset, suggesting he could form a government with the business acumen that has brought prosperity to Peru's sizeable Japanese community. He dealt ruthlessly with Shining Path, giving the military a free rein to put down the insurgency. Thousands of innocent civilians, living in remote communities in the Andes, are believed to have been killed, caught in the crossfire. Fujimori's Government stabilised the economy, ridding it of the hyperinflation of the 1980s.