Alberto Fujimori

[[File:Al Fujimori.jpg|thumb|160px|Alberto Fujimori, the world's deadliest dork.]]{{politics}}
{{Sources needed}}
'''Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto''' {{lived|1938|2024}} was the [[dictator]] of [[Peru]] who ruled the country from 1990 to 2000. In 2007, he was sentenced to 25 years of prison for [[human rights]] violations, but was released after serving 16 years. He was nicknamed "Chino" ([[China|Chinese]]), despite being of [[Japan|Japanese]] descent, and his opponents refered to him as "[[Augusto Pinochet|Chinochet]]" or "AseChino" (from ''asesino'', murderer).

==Dictatorship==
Fujimori, a [[right-wing]] independent supported by the [[Evangelical vote|Evangelical Church]], came to power by unexpectedly beating the famous writer Mario Vargas Llosa in the 1990 presidential election, with the promise of ending Peru's critical economic and political situation. Since the mid-1980s, after decades of military dictatorship, Peru was suffering from [[hyperinflation]] and political turmoil amid the activities of the [[Maoism|Maoist]] [[Guerrilla war|guerrilla]] organization [[Shining Path]] (a.k.a., ''Partido Comunista del Perú'' or ''Sendero Luminoso'') as well as the {{wpl|Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement}} (''Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru'' or MRTA). Fujimori enacted an aggressive [[neoliberal]] program of mass [[privatization|privatizations]] (''Fujishock''), which helped reduce inflation and restored economic stability, but also came at the cost of vast impoverishment, which pushed the country's rural and indigenous masses into supporting the [[communist]] guerrillas.<ref>[https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=uauje Macroeconomic Reform and Policy: The Case of Peru - Analyzing the effects of some major economic, political and social changes in the Peruvian Financial market for the period between 1990 and 1992]</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/12/world/peru-s-poor-feel-hardship-of-fuji-shock-austerity.html Peru's Poor Feel Hardship of 'Fuji Shock' Austerity] The New York Times</ref>

In 1992, in response to what he perceived as Congressional obstructionism against his regime, and under the pretext of fighting the communist insurgency, Fujimori carried out a [[coup d'état|self-coup]] with the support of the army. He jailed his political opponents, dissolved Congress and suspended the Constitution. A few weeks later, he ordered the massacre of at least 50 imprisoned Shining Path members after an alleged riot in Canto Grande Prison. Fujimori's [[authoritarianism]] increased dramatically, even after the capture of Shining Path's leader and founder, Abimael Guzmán ("Chairman Gonzalo"). The {{wpl|Grupo Colina||,}} a far-right death squad, carried out a series of mass murders from 1990 to 1994 under the direct command of a "troika" consisting of Fujimori, his Chief of Intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos (a [[School of the Americas]] graduate who, ironically, was named after [[Vladimir Lenin]]), and the army's commander-in-chief, General Nicolás Hermoza Ríos. Over 3,000 people were murdered by his dictatorship during his first term in office alone.

Fujimori drafted a new Constitution, which allowed him to seek re-election. In 1995, he defeated former Secretary General of the [[United Nations]], Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. During his second term, he strengthened his control over the military and became involved in a brief and pointless war with [[Ecuador]]. He also ordered the [[eugenics|forced sterilizations]] of 300,000 indigenous women and "solved" the 1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis by [[extrajudicial punishment|summarily executing]] 14 members of the MRTA guerrilla group.

In 2000 Fujimori was re-elected for a third consecutive term, although this time he was accused of electoral fraud, not only by his opponent, Alejandro Toledo, but also by international election observers. Despite massive protests, from violent clashes to public "flag washings",<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1866667_1866668_1866658,00.html "Cleaning up Politics - Top 10 Odd Protests"], ''TIME''</ref> Fujimori was duly inaugurated. A few months later, however, a scandal known as ''Vladivideos'' broke out when a TV station broadcasted hidden-camera footage of Vladimiro Montesinos bribing business executives and opposition political leaders into supporting Fujimori.

The dictator panicked. He ordered the immediate shutdown of the SIN (the national intelligence service under Montesinos), secretly ransacked Montesinos's home looking for evidence to destroy, called for early elections, and fled to Japan, where he announced his resignation from office via fax. However, instead of accepting his resignation, Congress decided to 
fire his ass
 formally destitute him. In 2001, he was barred from holding public office in Peru for 10 years, and Interpol issued an arrest warrant against him.

==Trials and imprisonment==
Fujimori remained in Japan, where numerous attempts to extradite him were blocked by the right-wing Japanese [[government]]. In 2005, the former dictator foolishly decided to visit Santiago, [[Chile]], and was immediately detained and placed under house arrest until his extradition in 2007.

In 2007, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for abuse of power, after he had ordered an illegal search and seizure of Vladimiro Montesinos's wife's apartment in 2000. On April 2009, he was found guilty of [[crimes against humanity]] (including murder and kidnapping) and sentenced to a further 25 years' imprisonment. On July 2009, he was given 7 more years for embezzling 15 million dollars in favor of Montesinos, and in 2015 he was sentenced to further 8 years, also over embezzlement charges (he had diverted 40 million from the military budget to buy off several sensationalist [[tabloid]] newspapers, or ''diarios chicha'', and gain favorable headlines).

That's ''46 years'' of jail time, 
but luckily for the bastard, since prison sentences in Peru are served concurrently, he only had to live to 94 to be a free man.
 Just kidding! In yet another blow to tackling impunity in [[Latin America]], on December 5 2023, the Constitutional Court ordered the immediate release of the dictator, even though the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had annulled a new pardon, which had been granted in 2022 by the illegitimate dictator of Peru, Dina Boluarte. (On December 2017, the center-right President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had issued a "[[Christmas]] pardon" for Fujimori on health grounds, which was widely denounced and met with angry protests. On October 2018, months after the resignation of Kuczynski over corruption allegations, the pardon was overturned by the Supreme Court.)

Fujimori's accomplice, Vladimiro Montesinos, was extradited from [[Venezuela]] in 2001. He was accused of several crimes, ranging from [[drug]] trafficking to murder, and received a 25-year sentence in 2010. Former General Nicolás Hermoza Ríos, the third member of Fujimori's "troika", was also condemned to 25 years in prison in 2010 (later reduced to 20 years).

He wanted to run for president again in 2026,<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-convict-ex-president-alberto-fujimori-85-aims-run-again-2024-07-15/ Peru's convict ex-president Alberto Fujimori, 85, aims to run again], Marco Aquino and Alexander Villegas, ''Reuters'' 15 July 2024</ref> but fortunately for everyone he died before that could happen, on September 11 2024 (exactly three years after his nemesis, Chairman Gonzalo).

==Rotten legacy==
[[File:Keiko Fujimori 2.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Keiko Fujimori in 2010.]]
Fujimori's daughter {{wpl|Keiko Fujimori|Keiko}} {{lived|1975}} is a former Congresswoman who had previously served as the youngest First Lady in the history of Peru from 1994 to 2000, after her parents' acrimonious [[divorce]]; she [[Perennial candidate|ran for president]] in 2011, 2016, and 2021, losing the 2016 election by only 0.25% of the vote. In 2018, Keiko was sentenced to 3 years of preventive prison, as part of an investigation of her role as leader of a criminal organization within her party.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-judge-declares-ex-president-fujimoris-pardon-inadmissable-2023-12-01/ Peru courts block ex-President Fujimori's pardon, green light trial of daughter] Reuters</ref>

His son Kenji {{lived|1980}}, also a former member of Congress, was suspended in 2018 following ''Kenjivideos'', a political scandal reminiscent of the one that led to Fujimori's downfall in 2000.

Alberto Fujimori is among the many South American dictators worshipped by far-right [[Brazil]]ian former president [[Jair Bolsonaro]] (the list also includes the leaders of the Brazilian military dictatorship, [[Paraguay]]'s [[Alfredo Stroessner]], and [[Chile]]'s [[Augusto Pinochet]], among others).{{cn|Jan 2025}}

==See also==
*[[Álvaro Uribe]], the authoritarian former leader of [[Colombia]]
*[[Ferdinand Marcos]], the fascist president of the Philippines
*[[Augusto Pinochet]], another pro-America fascist dictator

==References==
{{reflist|80%}}

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[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Convicted felons]]
[[Category:Coups]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Cult leaders]]
[[Category:Dictators]]
[[Category:Eugenics supporters]]
[[Category:Fascists]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Homophobes]]
[[Category:Peru]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:South American politicians]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]

Categories: Christians, Convicted felons, Coups, Crimes against humanity, Cult leaders, Dictators, Eugenics supporters, Fascists, Genocide, Homophobes, Peru, Racists, Right-wing activists, South American politicians, Terrorism