Alberto Fujimori - Rise and Fall El Sendero Luminoso and El Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru Peruvian Terrorism When Fujimori become president in 1990 Peru was facing catastrophe. The economy was in the grip of hyperinflation but, even more seriously, in the countryside a bloody civil war was raging between the army and the guerrilla movement, el Sendero Luminoso or the Shining Path, which controlled about a third of the country. Abimael Guzmán, a philosophy lecturer in the University of San Cristóbal de Huamanga, in Ayacucho, founded the Shining Path in 1970 as a Maoist breakaway movement from the pro-Russian Peruvian Communist Party. Poverty and injustice made Ayacucho a fertile breeding ground for the movement which started a campaign armed insurrection in 1980. By the middle of the decade several thousand guerrillas were operating in rural areas and by late 80s urban terrorism was also a problem. Sendero Luminoso was not the only terrorist movement.

The other was the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, generally known by its initials, MRTA, or as Túpac Amaru which was the name of the last Inca ruler who was assassinated by the Spaniards in 1572. Almost two centuries later, Tupac Amaru's great-grandson, José Gabriel Condorcanqui, better known as Tupac Amaru II, led a new uprising against Spanish rule but his rebellion was crushed and he was captured and, after being tortured, was executed in the main plaza in Cusco in 1781. The MRTA, which was smaller and less extreme than Sendero Luminoso, started its guerrilla campaign in 1984. In February 1989 the MRTA suffered a setback when its leader, Victor Polay, was captured but on July 8, 1990, less than three weeks before Fujimori became president, 47 MRTA members, including Polay, escaped from Canto Grande prison via a 332 metre tunnel.

Che Guevara in Peru In 1951-52 Che Guevara and his doctor friend Alberto Granado undertook a journey by motor bike from Argentina through Chile and Peru to Venezuela. It was in Peru that Guevara came in close contact with South America's Indian masses for the first time. In his diary he noted the words of a school teacher in Puno with whom he made friends. "The present system of education ... on the rare occasions it does offer indians an education, ... only fills them with shame and resentment, leaving them unable to help their fellow indians and at a tremendous disadvantage in a white society which is hostile to them and doesn't want to accept them." "The fate of these unhappy people is to vegetate in some obscure bureaucratic job and die hoping that, thanks to the miraculous power of the drop of Spanish blood in their veins, one or other of their children will somehow achieve the goal to which they aspire until the end of their days." No doubt the experiences he gained on his epic motor bike trip played an important part in the formation of Che Guevara's political outlook.

What he said about the native people of Peru could also be said of those in Bolivia where, 14 years later, Guevara tried to organise a revolution like the one he had helped Fidel Castro to lead in Cuba. However he was captured in 1967 and executed on the order of President Barrientos. Despite the failure of his campaign Bolivia, Che Guevara's words and deeds were to inspire the MRTA in Peru. At first Fernando Belaúnde did not take the terrorist threat very seriously but in December 1982 he authorised the intervention of the armed forces in the counterinsurgency struggle. Atrocities were committed by both the terrorists, particularly the Shining Path, and the government. General Luis Cisneros, the Minister of Defence, explained the government's strategy with brutal clarity. The police do not know who the senderistas are, nor how many there are, nor when they are going to attack. For the police force to have any success, they would have to begin to kill senderistas and non-senderistas alike, because that is the one way they could ensure success.

They kill 60 people and at most there are three senderistas among them and for sure the police will say that all 60 were senderistas. Alan Garcia who succeeded Belaúnde as president in July 1985, tried to put an end to indiscriminate killing by army and security forces but had little success. The Sendero Luminoso drove government forces out of the upper part of the Huallaga Valley and repulsed the attempts of their rivals in the MRTA, who were strong in the central part of the valley, to get footholds there. At that time Huallaga accounted for about 40% of the world's production of coca, the raw material for cocaine. Most production of the drug actually occurred, then as now, in Colombia, but Sendero Luminoso's control of the biggest source of coca leaves helped to finance their rebellion. MRTA used kidnapping and extortion as well as drug trafficking. The dirty war continued and Garcia's economic policies proved disastrous, thus increasing discontent with the government in those parts of the country that were still relatively free from terrorist activity and paving the way for Fujimori's victory in the 1990 presidential election.

Fujimori's "Self Coup" or Autogolpe To tackle Peru's economic problems Fujimori decided to adopt a programme of shock treatment similar to that advocated by his defeated rival, Vargas Llosa. Within a year, he brought down inflation from a peak annual rate of 7,650% to 139%. (In 1999, President Fujimori's last full year in power, the annual rate of inflation fell to 3.7%. See Peru en Cifras: Informaciï¿½n Econï¿½mica ). However the security situation continued to deteriorate. Fujimori lacked a majority in Congress and therefore on 5 April 1992, like a Peruvian Cromwell, he dissolved Congress and suspended the constitution, declaring that he needed a freer hand to introduce more economic reforms, combat terrorism and drug trafficking and root out corruption. He also purged the judiciary, dismissing 13 of 23 Supreme Court justices and dozens of other judges.

A couple of months after Fujimori's coup, on 10 June, Victor Polay the leader of MRTA was recaptured, but that success was overshadowed by the actions of Sendero Luminoso which stepped up its campaign in the capital, Lima, itself. However, behind the scenes significant developments were taking place. Major Benedicto Jimenez, an officer in DINCOTE (la Direccion Nacional Contra el Terrorismo or the National Office Against Terrorism) being disgusted with the dirty war, had proposed to capture the leaders of the terrorist movement by patient detective work and despite a lack of support from most of his superiors he set up a small unit with that objective. Jimenez asked the Americans for assistance but his initial overtures were rebuffed. However, after Jimenez discovered a terrorist safe house in Lima, they changed their minds and the CIA provided considerable assistance . Britain also helped by sending an expert in surveillance operations from Scotland Yard to provide training. After another safe house was discovered agents regularly examined the rubbish discarded by the occupants until one day they found a package that had contained a medication for psoriasis, an ailment from which Guzman suffered, a label from his favourite brand of vodka, and other clues indicating his presence.

On 12 September the commander of DINCOTE, General Antonio Ketin Vidal, led a raid on the house and arrested Guzman to whom he said: "In life, one has to know how to win and lose. As a man of the dialectic, you should know that you have lost." That was the turning point in the war against terrorism that is estimated to have cost 30,000 lives. Fujimori's popularity soared but there were influential Peruvians who were troubled by his autocratic rule. On 13 November General Jaime Salinas led an abortive counter-coup with the aim of restoring democracy but he and the other leaders of the conspiracy were captured by the security forces. Salinas subsequently spent three years in prison. Less than two weeks after the failed counter-coup, elections for a new Congress were won by Fujimori's party giving him the authority to push through the changes that he wanted. However his wife Susana Higuchi proved less amenable to his bidding than Congress. That same year the couple split up and Higuchi announced her intention of running against her husband in the 1995 presidential elections.

Fujimori responded by having a law passed which prevented close relations of the president from seeking higher office and Higuchi was not able to get divorced until after the election. In January 1995 there were clashes between Peruvian and Ecuadorian troops along the border in Cenepa, an area which had been disputed since the Spanish colonies in South America gained their independence. A cease-fire was arranged in February and both countries agreed to settle their differences by negotiation. The next month Fujimori was re-elected, defeating the former secretary general of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar, by a landslide. The Japanese Embassy Hostage Crisis What at first appeared to be a major setback took place on the evening of December 17, 1996. In the official residence of the Japanese ambassador a party in honour of the Emperor's birthday was in full swing when Tupac Amaru guerrillas seized the building and took 452 guests hostage, including Fujimori’s brother, the foreign minister, the agriculture minister, and the Japanese ambassador, and prominent Japanese businessmen. The rebels demanded the release of several hundred guerrillas who were held in Peruvian prisons.

The women among the hostages were soon released and although Fujimori rejected the rebels' demands the Red Cross acted as an intermediary between the government and the guerrillas. Over the next few months most of the remaining hostages were released but 72 were still being held when, on 22 April 1997, all but one who suffered a heart attack, were freed in a dramatic raid by Peruvian commandos. All of the 14 Tupac Amaru rebels and two soldiers died in the assault. The successful freeing of the hostages boosted Fujimori's popularity to new heights. The Challenge of the 1997-98 El Niño El Niño is a meteorological phenomenon that causes chaotic conditions over a large part of the globe but Peru and Ecuador are usually the countries worst affected. It is believed that the destructive effects of El Niño were responsible for the collapse of the Moche civilisation in the north of Peru during the period AD 650-700.

A dramatic illustration of its power was the appearance in February 1998 in the Sechura desert, 500 miles northwest of Lima, of a lake 185 miles long, 25 miles wide, and 33 feet deep. The cost to Peru of one of the severest El Niños of the 20th century was considerable and was made worse by the fact that it occurred just after the crisis in the so-called Asian tiger economies. In 1997 the Peruvian economy had grown at a rate of 6.8% but in 1998 output fell by 0.6%. Fujimori had made plans in advance for coping with the floods and landslides that El Niño was expected to bring and when the situation was at its worst in early in 1998 assumed responsibility for co-ordinating engineering work, disaster relief and the evacuation of threatened areas. Once again his resolve in a time of crisis boosted his popularity - in the short term. Inevitably the economic downturn had the opposite effect.

The Border Dispute with Ecuador On 13 May 1999 President Fujimori met President Jamil Mahuad of Ecuador at the military post of Puesto Cahuide where an orange-painted boundary stone was laid, the last one in the disputed area that the two countries had fought over three times in the twentieth century - in 1941, 1981 and 1995. Their meeting in that place set the seal on the agreement that they had reached in October 1998. Ecuador had sought access to the Amazon (and thus to the Atlantic Ocean) ever since the country was created in 1830. Under the terms of the treaty Ecuador was given navigation rights and sites in Peru for operating port services. The border between the two countries follows the heights of the Cordillera del Condor mountain range, as Peru had maintained it should. Ecuador had wanted Tiwintza Hill which their soldiers had successfully defended in 1995 and where some of them are buried but, in a judgment of Solomon ownership was separated from sovereignty, the former being given to the Ecuadorian government while Peru retained the latter.

The Cocaine Business After the Sendero Luminoso's grip on rural areas, and especially the Huallaga Valley, the Peruvian government began to tackle the drug dealers. Vladimiro Montesinos put into force a policy of shooting down suspicious planes that ignored orders to land and measures were taken to reduce the cultivation of coca, which has some legitimate uses, (e.g. as mate de coca, a tea made from coca leaves which is merely a mild stimulant like coffee) and encourage the production of alternative crops instead. The latter policy had considerable success and the area of land devoted to coca dropped from 115,300 hectares in 1995 to 34,100 hectares in 2000, according to the Economist magazine. In Bolivia too, there was a considerable reduction. Unfortunately those improvements were more than offset by a huge increase in coca production in Colombia, the home of the cocaine cartels, where the area under cultivation increased from 50,900 to 136,200 hectares in the same period.

Moreover, FARC, a guerrilla organisation, and right wing paramilitary groups are said to protect the interests of the cocaine barons in that country. Subsequent revelations that the Peruvian intelligence services, headed by Mr. Montesinos, had at one stage provided protection for bribe-paying drug traffickers tarnished the governments record in cutting coca production in that country. El Chino versus El Cholo President Fujimori had already tinkered with the constitution to allow himself a second term and to disbar estranged his wife from standing against him. Even so it was a surprise when in August 1996, quite early in his second term, he introduced a law that allowed him to interpret the constitution in such a way that the limit to two consecutive terms of office as president only counted from the end of his first term! Peru's constitutional court disagreed but the Congress dismissed three of the judges thus removing that obstacle. The main opposition candidate in the 2000 presidential election was Alejandro Toledo who had been minister of labour under President Belaúnde (Fujimori's predecessor's predecessor) and had also been the chief economic adviser to the Central Bank of Peru and had worked for the World Bank.

Because of his origins Toledo was affectionately called by his supporters El Cholo, a usually derogatory term applied to urbanised Indians. He had been born in a poor Indian village in the Andes and was one of 16 brother and sisters. His family subsequently moved to the coastal city of Chimbote where his father worked as a bricklayer and his mother sold fish, and Alejandro himself started work as a shoeshine boy at the age of seven. Nevertheless, such was his performance at school that at the age of 16 he won a scholarship to the University of San Francisco. Later he gained a a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford where he met his wife, a Belgian anthropologist, Elaine Karp. When the couple moved to Lima in 1981 people tended to assume that he was her driver. However, unlike most white Peruvians she learnt to speak Quechua fluently and made speeches in that language in support of her husband during his campaign for the presidency. In contrast Fujimori would sometimes don a poncho and would make the audience laugh by replying in Japanese to questions posed in Quechua. The election in April 2000 was bitterly contested.

Officially Fujimori narrowly failed to get the 50% of the votes required for an outright victory and therefore a second round of voting was necessary in June but Toledo dropped out, alleging that the election was being rigged in his opponent's favour. However Fujimori's days in power were numbered. Vladimiro Montesinos, the Man from SIN In August President Fujimori held a news conference to announce the interception of a large consignment of arms from Jordan destined for FARC guerrillas in Colombia and he gave the credit for smashing the operation to his right hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos. However, the Jordanian government claimed that it had sold the arms to the Peruvian armed forces. Not long afterwards, on Thursday 14 September 2000 a video was broadcast that was to lead to the fall from power of Alberto Fujimori. The video, that had fallen into the hands of one of the opposition parties in Peru, showed Montesinos, giving a bribe of $15,000 to congressman Luis Alberto Kouri to switch sides in order to try and ensure that the government's favoured candidate would be chosen as president of Congress.

According to one later report Montesinos himself had been responsible for the arms sale to FARC , angering the CIA, who turned against a man with whom they had previously had close links, and a group of Peruvian army officers who were emboldened to break into his office and steal the tape - one of a collection of thousands incriminating politicians, officials and military officers. Montesinos was not the only one to be accused of a double role in the arms for FARC affair. Months later, Robinson Rivadeneyra a member of Alejandro Toledo party and no friend of Montesinos, claimed in El Comercio newspaper that the CIA had approved of the arms shipments to FARC in order to justify US military intervention in Colombia. Whatever the the truth about the origin of the video, in the uproar that ensued following its broadcast, Fujimori announced that he would hold new presidential and parliamentary elections in which he himself would not be a candidate. At the same time, he announced the dissolution of SIN, el Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (the National Intelligence Service), of which Montesinos was the de facto chief.

The parents of the spy chief, regarded by many as Fujimori's Rasputin, were communists and therefore they named their son, who was born in Arequipa in 1946, Vladimir Ilyich after Lenin, an ironic choice for the boy who was to grow up to become the pillar of a right-wing regime. By coincidence Arequipa was also the birthplace of the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, Fujimori's opponent in the 1990 election, and Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán. In 1966 Vladimiro Montesinos joined the army and subsequently became the personal adjutant of another officer from Arequipa, General Mercado Jarrín. When the president, General, Juan Velasco Alvarado made Jarrín his prime minister in January 1973, Montesinos moved closer to the reigns of power in what was a left-wing regime. Soon it became apparent that information was being leaked to the US embassy and suspicion fell on Montesinos.

When General Guillermo Arbulú took over as commander-in-chief took of the army in 1976, Montesinos was transferred to a remote garrison of El Algarrobo near the Ecuador border. Montesinos stayed there only a matter of days before flying to Washington where he had meetings with officials in the CIA but on his return to Peru he was arrested, was convicted of falsehood and desertion of command, expelled from the army, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. While in prison he studied law and on his release specialised in defending people accused of tax fraud and drug traffickers. As the cocaine barons had corrupt allies in the army and police the information Montesinos acquired through his job made him an increasingly powerful figure. When General José Valdivia was accused of having been responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians in the Shining Path stronghold of Ayacucho in 1988, he turned to Montesinos for help and the case against him was dropped. Even SIN found Montesinos useful because of his contacts and files on all sorts of people and he began to supply the agency with information.

When, during his campaign for the presidency in 1990, Fujimori was worried about accusations of tax evasion which were damaging to a candidate who made much of his clean reputation, General Díaz, the boss of SIN, suggested that Montesinos should help him. From then onwards Fujimori found himself increasingly dependent on Montesinos whose reputation became even more controversial. In November 1991, 15 people at a party in a poor district of Lima where killed in one of the most notorious acts of La Colina death squad, formed to combat the Shining Path. Local media claimed the death squad had mistaken the party for a terrorist meeting. According to rumours Montesinos was the man behind La Colina. The unit within DINCOTE established by Benedicto Jimenez for tracking down and arresting terrorist leaders was the complete antithesis of La Colina in its methods. Despite the rumours, Montesinos was one of the very few people in authority who gave Major Jimenz practical support. He agreed to provide equipment, and money if Jimenez hired four analysts from military intelligence. However, when the major discovered that the analysts were reporting back to Montesinos he sacked them.

Later, when the Sendero Luminoso leader was safely behind bars, Benedicto Jimenez was posted to the Peruvian Embassy in Panama as a police attache - not much of a reward for his role in ridding Peru of terrorism. Nevertheless in some ways he was fortunate. Even generals learnt that it was unwise to cross Montesinos. Biography of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Biography of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Visionary Leader or Corrupt Politician? Sign Up for Our Free Newsletters Thanks, You're in! What I Learned About Today You might also enjoy: Health Tip of the Day Recipe of the Day There was an error. Please try again. Please select a newsletter. Please enter a valid email address. Did you mean ? Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Swears in Interior Minister. Getty Images Updated April 06, 2016. Alberto Fujimori (1938-) is a Peruvian politician of Japanese descent. An academic by background, he was elected President of Peru three times between 1990 and 2000, although he fled the country prior to completing his third term.

A highly controversial figure, he is credited with ending the armed rebellion associated with the Shining Path and other guerrilla groups and stabilizing the economy. However, his administration is considered corrupt and there were many human rights violations during his time in office. He is currently in Peru, facing charges for a number of different crimes. Early Years Fujimori’s parents were both born in Japan but immigrated to Peru in the 1920’s, were his father found work as a tailor and tire repairman. Alberto has always held dual citizenship, a fact that would come in handy later in his life. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World A bright young man, he excelled in school, and graduated first in his class in Peru with a degree in Agricultural Engineering. He eventually went to the United States, where he earned his master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin. Back in Peru, he chose to remain in academia. He was appointed dean and then rector of his alma mater, the Universidad Nacional Agraria, and in addition was named president of the Asamblea Nacional de Rectores, essentially making him the top academic in all of the country.

1990 Presidential Campaign In 1990, Peru was in the midst of a crisis. Outgoing President Alan García and his scandal-ridden administration had left the country a shambles, with out of control debt and inflation. In addition, the Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency, was gaining strength and popularity and brazenly attacking strategic targets in an effort to topple the government. Fujimori decided to run for president, backed by a new party, “Cambio 90.” His opponent was the well-known writer Mario Vargas Llosa. Fujimori, running on a platform of change and honesty, was able to win the election: it was something of an upset. During the election, he became associated with his nickname “El Chino,” (“the Chinese Guy”) which is not considered offensive in Peru. Economic Reforms Fujimori immediately turned his attention to the ruined Peruvian economy. He initiated some drastic, sweeping changes, including trimming the bloated government payroll, reforming the tax system, selling off state-run industries, slashing subsidies and raising the minimum wage.

The reforms meant a time of austerity for the country, and prices for some basic necessities (such as water and gas) skyrocketed, but in the end, his reforms worked and the economy stabilized. Pleased to see an economically responsible government in Peru, the International Monetary Fund helped secure loans, and foreign investment increased. The Shining Path and the MRTA During the 1980’s, two terrorist groups had all of Peru living in fear: the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA: Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, named after the last ruling Inca , executed by the Spanish in 1572) and the Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”). These groups wished to topple the government and replace it with a communist one modeled on Russia (MRTA) or China (Shining Path). The two groups organized strikes, assassinated leaders, blew up electrical towers, detonated car bombs, and by 1990 they controlled entire sections of the country, where residents paid them taxes and there were no government forces whatsoever.

Ordinary Peruvians lived in fear of these groups, especially in the Ayacucho region where the Shining Path was the de facto government. Fujimori Cracks Down Just as he had done with the economy, Fujimori attacked the rebel movements directly and ruthlessly. He gave his military commanders free rein, allowing them to detain, interrogate and torture suspects with no judicial oversight. Although the secret trials drew the criticism of international human rights watchdog groups, the results were undeniable. In September of 1992 Peruvian security forces severely weakened the Shining Path by capturing leader Abimaél Guzmán in a posh Lima suburb. In 1996, MRTA soldiers attacked the residence of the Japanese ambassador during a party, taking 400 hostages. After a four-month standoff, Peruvian commandos stormed the residence, killing all 14 terrorists while losing only one hostage. For his success in defeating these two groups, Fujimori is credited by most Peruvians for ending terrorism in their country.

Prev Profile: Alberto Fujimori - BBC News BBC News Close share panel Image caption Alberto Fujimori's time in office was eventful To his supporters, Alberto Fujimori was the president who saved Peru from the twin evils of terrorism and economic collapse. To his opponents, he was an authoritarian strongman who rode roughshod over the country's democratic institutions in order to preserve his hold on power. Mr Fujimori's decade in power from 1990 to 2000 was marked by a series of dramatic twists and turns. One of the key moments of his presidency was the hostage siege by Marxist MRTA rebels at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996-97. After a four-month stand-off, commandos were sent in to take the building. All 14 rebels were killed and nearly all the 72 hostages were rescued in an operation that at the time cemented Mr Fujimori's talking and acting tough.

Fujimori: Rise and fall 1990: Wins a surprise victory at polls 1992: Dissolves Peru's congress with military backing, assuming greater control 1995: Restores congress and overwhelmingly wins a second term 2000: Re-elected for a third term amid allegations of ballot rigging 2000: Flees to Japan after Montesinos scandal breaks 2005: Detained in Chile at the Peruvian authorities' request 2007: Extradited from Chile to face trial in Peru 2007: Jailed for six years for abuse of power 2009: Convicted of human rights abuses, jailed for 25 years But a bribery scandal involving former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos helped tarnish the president's reputation. In November 2000, Mr Fujimori fled to his parents' native Japan, where he lived for five years in self-imposed exile. In an effort to resurrect his political career and launch a new bid for the presidency, he flew to Chile in November 2005, only to be arrested at the request of the Peruvian authorities.

Mr Fujimori then spent two years fighting to block his extradition to face a series of charges, a battle he lost in September 2007. He was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail in December 2007 on charges of abuse of power, over the removal of sensitive video and audio tapes from Mr Montesinos's home. In April 2009, judges found him guilty of authorising death-squad killings in two incidents known as La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, and the kidnapping of a journalist and a businessman. Mr Fujimori repeatedly denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated. Country in ruins The 15-month trial and the divisions in public opinion it generated echoed the controversy that accompanied Mr Fujimori throughout his political career. When he won the presidential elections in 1990, few Peruvians knew what to expect. An agricultural engineer born of Japanese parents, Mr Fujimori was a political unknown until weeks before the vote. He inherited a country on the verge of economic collapse and racked by political violence. He implemented a radical programme of free-market reforms, removing subsidies, privatising state-owned companies and reducing the role of the state in almost all spheres of the economy.

Though this shock therapy brought great hardship for ordinary Peruvians, it ended rampant hyperinflation and paved the way for sustained economic growth in the second half of the 1990s. Mr Fujimori also tackled the left-wing rebels whose 10-year insurgency had caused thousands of deaths. But he says he never approved a dirty war against the rebels. In 1992, with the support of the military, the president dissolved the Peruvian congress and courts and seized dictatorial powers. He justified the measure by arguing that the legislative and judiciary had been hindering the security forces in their fight against the rebels. Opposition politicians said he was really seeking to escape any democratic checks on his power. But he was soon vindicated in the eyes of most Peruvians by the capture of the leader of the main rebel group, the Shining Path. Spying scandal In 1995, Mr Fujimori stood for re-election and won an overwhelming victory. Most voters cited his victories over left-wing insurgents and hyperinflation as the reason for giving him their support. But a growing number of Peruvians began to voice concern that the methods used against the insurgency were also being employed against the president's democratic opponents.

His critics accused him of using the intelligence service led by Mr Montesinos to intimidate and spy on rivals. They said he exerted unfair control on the media and the judiciary, and used government resources to support his own campaigns. This criticism increased when he announced he was to stand for an unprecedented third successive term. Although he won the May 2000 elections, amid further allegations of vote-rigging, the prized third term began the start of his downfall. After the Montesinos scandal broke, the opposition gained control of Congress for the first time in eight years and dismissed Mr Fujimori on grounds of "moral incapacity". Alberto Fujimori | president of Peru | Britannica.com president of Peru Fernando Belaúnde Terry Alberto Fujimori, (born July 28, 1938, Lima , Peru), Peruvian politician, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000. Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, earned a degree in agronomic engineering from the National Agrarian University in Lima (1961). He then traveled abroad to pursue graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Strasbourg , France.

After returning to Peru, he joined the faculty at his alma mater, eventually serving as rector (1984–89). In 1988–89 Fujimori hosted a television show, Concertando (“Getting Together”), which examined environmental and agrarian issues. In 1989, as terrorism and hyperinflation plagued Peru, Fujimori began a bid for the presidency as the head of a new party, Cambio 90 (“Change 90”). His successful grassroots campaign quickly garnered attention because of Fujimori’s Japanese ancestry and his populist rhetoric , including criticism of the economic shock tactics advocated by the conservative candidate, novelist Mario Vargas Llosa . In June 1990 Fujimori defeated Vargas Llosa in a runoff election with 56.5 percent of the vote. However, on August 8, less than two weeks after taking office, Fujimori instituted austerity measures as harsh as those he earlier had decried, including raising the price of gasoline by 3,000 percent. The policy—popularly known as “Fujishock”—wiped out inflation but caused immediate layoffs and hardships among the poor.

In April 1992, increasingly frustrated with the legislature, which supported few of his programs, Fujimori staged an autogolpe (“self-administered coup”) with military support, declaring a state of emergency, dissolving Congress, and calling for a new constitution (promulgated in 1993). Fujimori’s political allies subsequently won a majority of legislative seats, which allowed the president to rule nearly unopposed. On the economic front, he carried out neoliberal policies such as privatizing state-owned mines and utility companies. Fujimori’s government also prosecuted an anti-insurgency campaign on various fronts, including arming villagers and conducting secretive military trials of suspected terrorists. Fujimori claimed credit for the program’s successes, including the capture in 1992 of Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, the leader of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) rebel movement and the storming in 1997 of the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima, where dozens of hostages had been held by members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement .

In the mid-1990s Fujimori’s wife, Susana Higuchi, publicly denounced him as corrupt and undemocratic and sought to run against him in the 1995 elections. Fujimori, however, had earlier passed a law prohibiting immediate relatives of the president from seeking the office, and she was ultimately barred from entering the race. He named his eldest daughter, Keiko Fujimori, as the country’s new first lady and easily won a second term with 64 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Vladimiro Montesinos , head of the country’s secret police and Fujimori’s closest adviser, increased his influence in the military and used the country’s secret police to infiltrate opposition political parties, bribe legislators and electoral officials, muzzle the media, embezzle and redirect government funds, and carry out human rights abuses, including illegal arrests and torture. Many Peruvians subsequently accused Fujimori of condoning those acts and of destroying relevant evidence, though he denied the charges. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Fujimori sought a controversial third term in 2000, after dismissing high justices who had declared his candidacy unconstitutional.

The main opposition candidate, Alejandro Toledo , withdrew from the final round of the election after claiming electoral fraud. Thus, Fujimori won the election unopposed but faced condemnation from the Organization of American States , the United States government, and an increasing number of Peruvians. His government crumbled in late 2000 when a video was released that showed Montesinos bribing a congressman. Amid growing allegations of corruption, Fujimori left Peru, eventually arriving in Japan , where he announced his resignation. Peru’s legislature, however, rejected it and formally voted Fujimori out of office, declaring him “morally unfit.” Fujimori, Alberto Encyclopedia > History > Biographies > Peru History: Biographies Alberto Fujimori Fujimori, Alberto (älbĕrˈtō fōˌjĭmôrˈē) [ key ], 1938–, president of Peru (1990–2000), b. Lima, Peru. The son of Japanese immigrants, he was educated in Peru and attended Univ. of Wisconsin. Fujimori was an unknown economist when he scored an upset in the 1990 presidential elections.

He inherited a nation experiencing a severe economic crisis and facing one of Latin America's most brutal guerrilla insurgencies, the Shining Path . He slashed inflation and restored economic confidence by cutting subsidies, aggressively collecting taxes, and raising prices. In 1992 he suspended congress and the courts and declared emergency rule to combat corruption and the Shining Path terrorism. Under strong international pressure, he announced elections to a new congress, but these were boycotted by the principal opposition parties. A break with his wife, Susana Higuchi, a civil engineer, led to her abortive attempt (1994) to contest his bid for reelection; they were divorced in 1995. In the presidential election (1995), he defeated Javier Pérez de Cuéllar . Despite high popularity ratings from the Peruvian public, Fujimori was widely criticized for autocratic rule and suppression of opposition voices. He retained office in the 2000 presidential election after Alejandro Toledo Manrique withdrew from the May runoff because of the expectation of fraud; in April, the election commission had been accused by observers of trying to steal the election in the first round.

After his chief adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, was accused of bribing opposition lawmakers in September, Fujimori offered to hold new presidential elections in which he would not run, but he ultimately resigned in November while traveling in Japan. He remained in exile in Japan, and the Japanese government subsequently recognized him as a Japanese citizen. Charged by the Peruvian congress with dereliction of duty for failing to return, he also had a variety of Peruvian criminal charges filed against him, and was banned from holding elected office until 2010. In 2005 he visited Chile as a prelude to launching a bid for the Peruvian presidency and was detained at the government of Peru's request; a subsequent attempt to register him as a Peruvian presidential candidate was denied. In Sept., 2007, following a prosecutor's recommendation, the Chilean courts approved his extradition to Peru. Despite being placed under house arrest during the court proceedings, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Japan's Diet in July, 2007.

In Dec., 2007, he was convicted in Peru of ordering an illegal search in 2000; he was also convicted on human rights charges in Apr., 2009, and on bribery charges in July, 2009, and pleaded guilty to wiretapping and embezzlement charges arising from the 2000 election in Sept., 2009. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Alberto K. Fujimori - The New York Times The New York Times Supported by Alberto K. Fujimori News about Alberto K. Fujimori, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. More Updated: April 8, 2009 Alberto K. Fujimori was the president of Peru from 1990 until 2000 before fleeing to Japan amid a growing corruption scandal.

On April 7, 2009, he was convicted by a three-judge panel in Lima for his role in two massacres by military forces that killed 25 people during a bloody period of guerrilla attacks in the early 1990s. It was the first time a democratically elected Latin American president was found guilty in his own country of rights abuses. The panel found Mr. Fujimori guilty of ordering a military death squad to carry out two massacres that killed 25 people during his regime, when he was battling guerrillas. Once lauded as a hero, he received a sentence of 25 years in prison. He can appeal the ruling, but the verdict is likely to have far-reaching political implications for Peru. The son of Japanese immigrants and an engineer by training, Mr. Fujimori emerged from obscurity in the 1990 Peruvian presidential elections, winning on the unlikely slogan "A president like you." After years of guerrilla warfare, drug trafficking, political violence and economic stagnation, Peruvians hoped he could bring peace and prosperity. Mr.

Fujimori succeeded in subduing the insurgencies, capturing the leader of the Maoist-inspired Shining Path in 1992 and defeating the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in 1997. In doing so, however, he ran roughshod over Peru's laws and institutions. In 1992, frustrated by the independence of the legislature, Mr. Fujimori suspended Congress and the Supreme Court and engineered a new constitution drastically increasing his power. Having tamed the guerrillas as well as inflation, Mr. Fujimori retained his popularity and was re-elected in a landslide in 1995. But his administration crumbled in 2000, after he had won a third term in an election that international monitors said was marred by rampant fraud. As charges of human rights abuses and base corruption spread, Mr. Fujimori fled, faxing in his resignation from Japan. The Peruvian government spent years unsuccessfully trying to extradite Mr. Fujimori from Japan, only to have him assist the effort with his 2005 move to Chile. He was extradited in 2007.

He is believed to be the world's first democratically elected former president to be found guilty of human rights violations in his own country. The trial, which was televised from Lima nationwide, began in December 2007 and included testimony by more than 80 witnesses and nearly two dozen outside experts. Mr. Fujimori's health problems caused frequent delays. (He had earlier, in a separate trial, been convicted of ordering an illegal search as his government was collapsing.) While no witnesses directly linked Mr. Fujimori to two deadly operations by the Colina group, a special military unit, prosecutors argued that as commander in chief and leader, he did nothing to try to stop the killings of guerrilla suspects and their supporters. The specific incidents at issue were a 1991 massacre of 15 people, including an 8-year-old boy, at a barbecue in Lima, and a 1992 raid at La Cantuta University that left nine students and a professor dead. In April 2009, as the trial was in its 15th month, Mr.

Fujimori took the stand in his own defense, telling the judicial panel that he was innocent and that his campaign against terrorism had been needed to eliminate the disorder that had turned the country "into a disaster." Mr. Fujimori described the early years of his presidency as a time of persistent guerrilla attacks that demanded bold action. The trial forced Peruvians to reflect on the methods his government used to vanquish the guerrillas in a two-decade war that left 70,000 dead. Many supporters, known as Fujimoristas, still regard Mr. Fujimori as laying the foundation for what has become a more stable, prosperous nation. Buoyed by demand for exports like copper and zinc, the economy has grown for six consecutive years and the country is sometimes described by economists as the "new Chile." His daughter, Keiko Fujimori, a member of congress, received more votes than any other legislator in a 2006 election.

Peru Presidential Election: Keiko Fujimori Poised to Win Read More: The Caretaker President and Poet Taking Charge of a Troubled Brazil That former leader, Alberto Fujimori, was a right-winger and President of Peru for ten years from 1990. A child of Japanese immigrants to Peru, Fujimori helped kickstart the country’s economy with controversial free-market reforms, and tackled left-wing rebels. But he was a controversial figure during his time in office, and after fleeing to Japan and resigning by fax in 2000, he flew to Chile in 2005, only to be arrested and extradited to Peru, where he was convicted of human rights abuses during his time in power. He is now serving a 25-year sentence in prison. Yet the former leader’s daughter, Keiko Fujimori, could become the next President of Peru after polls close on June 5, even while her father sits in jail. She leads her opponent, 77-year-old Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, by three points in the polls.

Read More: These 5 Facts Explain Why Venezuela Could Be on the Brink of Collapse Fujimori already won the first round of voting in April, taking home 39.86 per cent of the votes. Kuczynski trailed far behind with 21.05 per cent, narrowly beating the left-wing Veronika Mendoza for second place. Under Peru’s electoral system, if no candidate wins a majority of the popular vote in the first round, a run-off between the top two is triggered. After Fujimori’s narrow defeat in the second round of Peru’s last elections in 2011, she is now poised to make it over the top—thanks in part to taking pages from her father’s playbook. “She has worked very hard to reinforce her father’s traditional base of support. For five years she has been incessantly travelling the country, visiting town after town in the interior,” said Steven Levitsky, a Peru expert and Professor of Government at Harvard University.

Read More: The Troubling Historical Anniversary That Falls During Obama’s Argentina Trip Fujimori’s supporters say her time has now come: “Right now, she is the only option that we have to put our future in the hands of somebody who can lead Peru out of this current situation,” said Rita Rodriguez, 50, leader of a local branch of the Fuerza Popular party in central Lima. She was a member of Alberto Fujimori’s original Cambio 90 party in the 1990s and has remained a fujimorista ever since. But experts believe that the Keiko Fujimori’s popularity is not only down to her links with her father. “The number of committed fujimoristas in Peru is only around 15 to 20 per cent of the electorate,” says Levitsky. “Keiko Fujimori has out-campaigned everybody else since the last election, building without question the strongest political organization in the country.” Luz Salgado, a Member of Congress for Fuerza Popular and a key member of Alberto Fujimori’s government in the 1990s, agrees: “You can certainly separate Keiko Fujimori from her father’s legacy.

She has admitted that her father’s government made errors. And responsibility for these errors is individual—you can’t be held accountable for what your father has done.” Fujimori’s critics argue that, even beyond the problem of her father, Fujimori lacks the necessary experience to be president. “She is not somebody with the ability to lead our country,” says Gonzalo Cordova, 35, a member of an anti-Fujimori activist group in Lima. “She’s lived a public life since she was very young. Then she became a member of congress. She’s never had an actual job.” Yet it is her ability to walk a tightrope of public perception that has defined Fujimori’s campaign. She is both the daughter of a former president and a champion of the poor; she can simultaneously distance herself from her father’s legacy and embrace his traditional support base. It wasn’t always so: in an interview for a 2005 documentary about her father’s fall, she defended him defiantly. “What politicians here in Peru still can’t believe is that after all the accusations that they have made up against my father, his approval ratings are still between 35 and 40 per cent.

The more he’s attacked, the more popular he becomes. That’s what they fear: the return of Fujimori.” In the decade since that interview, Fujimori has attempted to carve out her own political identity. During a television debate before the first round of voting in April, she signed a pledge to “not use her political power to benefit any member of her family” if elected. This was widely interpreted in Peru as a promise not to pardon her father. As election day looms, Fujimori’s true political identity remains a mystery to many Peruvians, even as they are poised to elect her to the country’s highest office. “There is a huge amount of debate in Peru about whether her efforts to distance herself from her father are just theater, and that the plan is to simply pardon him on day one of her presidency,” says Levitsky. “The truth is, nobody really knows.” Alberto Fujimori Peru's 2011 Presidential Election: A Moral and Political Dilemma 1990 - Alberto Fujimori Corruption has long plagued Peruvian government institutions, including the security services -- military, police and judicial. The US Government initially believed that President Fujimori was a sincere anti-drug crusader.

At first there was no evidence of drug influence over the president. Unlike his predecessor, Fujimori initially avoided any implication that he or his policies have been influenced by the power of the narcotics dollar. But his senior advisor on national security matters - Vladimiro Montesinos - was linked to past narcotics corruption. Former President Alberto Fujimori's (1990-2000) intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos collaborated with top army and other security officials to develop a web of protection for favored drug traffickers while cooperating with U.S. officials to combat others. Senior military officers worked surreptitiously and closely with (certain) drug traffickers. The military was reluctant to implement a serious plan to pacify the drug growing areasbecause the payoffs from drug traffickers were too profitable. To many observers, that was Peru's "heyday" of narco-corruption -- a time when the government of Peru verged on becoming a kind of "narco-state" in which those who controlled the main criminal trafficking networks were in fact high government officials. Transparency International has estimated Alberto Fujimori stole $600 million from the state, hardly any of it recovered.

There was no single explanation for the nature and severity of the crisis Peru faced in the early 1990s. The temptation to blame Garcia and APRA was a strong one, given their dismal performance in government, but the crisis had much deeper roots. APRA inherited a nation beset with economic and social problems, but a political climate in which the consensus on the need for reform was unprecedented. The manner in which APRA governed resulted in an exacerbation of an existing breach between state and society. Consensus gave way to polarization and fragmentation of the party system, and economic policy fell prey to internal party politics, with disastrous results. Concerned about the economy, the increasing terrorist threat from Sendero Luminoso, and allegations of official corruption, in 1990 voters chose as President a relatively unknown mathematician-turned-politician, Alberto Fujimori. ï¿½El Chinoï¿½ was the term of affection for Fujimori, evoking his Asian heritage. Although Alberto Fujimori was elected by a large popular margin, he had no organized or institutionalized base of support. There have been countless theories as to why Fujimori was able to rise from virtual anonymity to the national presidency in the course of three months.

More than anything else, the Fujimori tsunami, as it was called, was a rejection of all established political parties: the right, despite its refurbished image; the squabbling and hopelessly divided far left; and certainly the left-of-center APRA because of its disastrous performance in government. Fujimori was able to capture the traditional support base of APRA: small entrepreneurial groups and those sectors of the middle class for whom APRA was no longer an acceptable alternative, but for whom the conservative Fredemo was also unacceptable. In addition, Fujimori's success was attributed largely to a great deal of support at the grassroots level. After serving as a UNA rector and host of a popular television program called "Concertando," Fujimori entered politics in 1989, running on a simple, if vague, platform of "Work, Honesty, and Technology." His appeal had several dimensions. First, his experience as an engineer, rather than a politician, and his lack of ties to any of the established parties clearly played into his favor.

APRA's incoherent conduct of government had led to an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions; at the same time, the polarized political debate and the derogatory mudslinging that characterized the electoral campaign did not seem to offer any positive solutions. The right preached free-market ideology with a fervor and made little attempt to appeal to the poor. The left was hopelessly divided and unable to provide a credible alternative to the failure of "heterodox" economic policy. Thus, not only was APRA discredited, but so were all established politicians. In addition, and key to his popular appeal, were Fujimori's origins as the son of Japanese immigrants. His Japanese ties also aroused some hopes, whether realistic or not, that in the event of his victory the Japanese would extend substantial amounts of aid to Peru. He capitalized on Vargas Llosa's lack of appeal to the poor by promising not to implement a painful "shock" economic adjustment program to end inflation and with slogans like "un presidente como tu" ("a president like you").

The claim of this first-generation Japanese-Peruvian that he was just like the majority in a predominantly mestizo and native American nation seemed less than credible, and his vague promises of "gradually" ending hyperinflation seemed glibly unrealistic. Nevertheless, his message was much more palatable to an already severely impoverished population than Vargas Llosa's more realistic but bluntly phrased calls for a shock austerity program to end inflation. "El shock" had become a common term in the electoral campaign and among all sectors of society. The support of the left and APRA virtually guaranteed Fujimori's victory in the second round, but it by no means signified an organized or institutionalized support base, either inside or outside Congress. The lack of such a base presented a formidable obstacle for a Fujimori government that already had an uncertain future. The electoral campaign, meanwhile, was waged in extremely negative and ad hominem terms and took on both racial and class confrontational overtones. It became a struggle between the "rich whites" and the "poor Indians," exacerbating the existing polarization in the system.

The political mudslinging and personal attacks, first by Fredemo against APRA and President Garcia, and then between the Fujimori and Vargas Llosa teams, offended the average voter. The conduct of the 1990 electoral campaign, in conjunction with the prolonged period of political polarization that preceded it, severely undermined faith in the established system and the political parties and leaders that were a part of it. This loss of faith, more than anything else, played into the hands of Fujimori and was responsible for his victory. In the second round of voting, on June 10, 1993, he attained 56.5 percent of the vote over 33.9 percent for Vargas Llosa. The Fujimori government came to power without a coherent team of advisers, a program for governing, or any indication of who would hold the key positions in the government. Fujimori's advisers were from diverse sides of the political spectrum, and he made no clear choices among them, as they themselves admitted. At the same time, he made it clear that he would reestablish relations with the international financial community, and that he was not interested in a radical economic program.

How he would reconcile those goals in the context of hyperinflation, with his promise not to implement a shock-stabilization plan, was the cause of a great deal of uncertainty. The 1990 electoral results reflected a total dissatisfaction with and lack of faith in traditional politicians and parties on the part of the populace. Fredemo's dogmatic and heavy-handed campaign was partially to blame for undermining that faith, as were a succession of weak or inept governments for the past several decades. Yet, in the short-term, the disastrous failure of APRA, the country's only well-institutionalized political party, was most directly to blame. The results of the 1990 elections merely demonstrated the exacerbation of a preexisting breach between state and society in Peru that had occurred from 1985 to 1990. The rejection of traditional parties did not necessarily reflect a rejection of the democratic system. Instead, it reflected an ongoing evolution of participation occurring outside the realm of traditional political institutions. In 1990 Peru's political spectrum and party system were polarized to an unprecedented degree.

In addition, the vote for Fujimori was to a large extent a vote against the shock stabilization plan that Vargas Llosa had proposed to implement. After less than a month in government, however, Fujimori was convinced, both by domestic advisers and prominent members in the international financial community, that he had to implement an orthodox shock program to stabilize inflation and generate enough revenue so that the government could operate. Although Fujimori ran on a populist platform, promising not to implement the macroeconomic shock package proposed by his opponent, novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, the severe economic situation forced Fujimori to carry out radical changes. He immediately implemented drastic economic policies to tackle inflation (which dropped from 7,650% in 1990 to 139% in 1991), but encountered opposition to further economic reforms, including dealing with the growing insurgency. On April 5, 1992, Fujimori dissolved the Congress in an "self-coup" ["autogolpe"] set aside the 1979 constitution, and carried out a mass firing of judges and ï¿½reorganizationï¿½ of the courts.

Later, pressured by the international community, Fujimori called new congressional elections. With a large majority in Congress, Fujimori proceeded to govern unimpeded, and in 1993 pushed through a new constitution with a strong executive function. Fujimori's security advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos, used bribes and intimidation to co-opt large segments of the judiciary, military, and media. In 1996 the Fujimori administration, allied with a Congressional majority, undertook a series of actions that jeopardized rule of law and weakened Peruï¿½s democratic institutions. Their goal was to guarantee Fujimoriï¿½s second reelection in 2000.

Unconstitutional laws were passed to permit this reelection; three judges of the Constitutional Tribunal were removed when they ruled against them; free press was curtailed through direct or indirect government pressure; smear campaigns on opposition members were carried out using tabloids financed by the National Intelligence System; a majority of the judges in the judicial system were made provisional and dependent on the executive branch; the traditional ï¿½culture of secrecyï¿½ prevalent in Peruvian public administration was furthered through Congressï¿½ abdication of its oversight responsibilities and lack of access to public information; local government lost many of its authorities which were centralized in the national government; state officials openly used public funds to support government party candidates and secure local popular support. The government unleashed a counterattack against the insurgencies that resulted in numerous human rights abuses on both sides and eventually quashed the Shining Path and MRTA. During this period Fujimori introduced far-reaching legal and economic reforms, privatized most state-owned companies, removed investment barriers, and significantly improved public finances.

After a short but intense border war, Fujimori reached a milestone peace accord in 1998 with Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad related to the common border, ending decades of hostility between the two countries. The Fujimori government succeeded in defeating insurgent groups militarily, but it became autocratic and corrupt over time. Fujimoriï¿½s government passed an amnesty law giving immunity to military personnel implicated in human rights abuses during the emergency [in 2001 a truth commission was appointed and the Peruvian government finally agreed to investigate 165 cases]. Fujimori mired Peru in political and economic turmoil with his questionable decision to seek a third term and his subsequent tainted electoral victory in June 2000. National and international pressure resulted in several electoral supervision processes, most of them allied with the Organization of American States (OAS) mission. Despite these efforts, the polling process was plagued with irregularities, most of which were publicly denounced before, during, and in the aftermath of the elections.

Prior to the run-off elections, the OAS, the Office of the Ombudsman, and civil society oversight groups presented a list of conditions that had to be met in order to guarantee democratic polls. Most were not met and the OAS decided not to supervise the run-off. The opposition candidate ï¿½ Alejandro Toledo ï¿½ called for a boycott of the elections. They were held, however, and Fujimori was declared the winner. The Organization of American States (OAS), as well as the US and many other states, refused to recognize the election results. The fraudulent electoral process aroused citizen indignation and protest. Pro-democracy demonstrations were held in many cities, including the massive march of the ï¿½Cuatro Suyosï¿½ (ï¿½Four Cardinal Pointsï¿½), when close to a quarter million Peruvians marched into Lima from all regions to protest Fujimoriï¿½s third term inauguration in July 2000. A political bribery scandal broke just weeks after Fujimori assumed his third term of office in July 2000.

His hold on power began to crumble in mid-September 2000 with the release of a videotape revealing an effort to bribe a member of the Peruvian congress. Although corruption has permeated Peruvian political institutions since Colonial times,The public screening of the first ï¿½Vladi-videoï¿½ in October clearly supported the growing suspicion that Vladimiro Montesinos, the chief of the National Intelligence Service, and Fujimori had co-opted a good portion of political and state authorities through bribes. Montesinos had made this and hundreds of other videotapes of high-ranking Peruvian government officials, members of the media, businessmen, and private citizens. Many of these tapes documented the corruption that permeated the Fujimori administration, such as attempts to blackmail or bribe some of these individuals. It was clear that Montesinos had taped most of these transactions, probably for future extortion purposes. The whole corrupt power system was put in jeopardy and rapidly collapsed. Montesinos left Peru for Panama in September 2000. After returning to Peru in late October, Montesinos went into hiding and was believed to have left the country.

A brief diplomatic dispute erupted in 2001 between Peru and Venezuela in connection with the capture of the former advisor to Peruï¿½s intelligence agency, Vladimiro Montesinos, in Venezuela. Hugo Chï¿½vez granted asylum to Montesinos. Peru alleged that Venezuela had temporarily hidden and protected Montesinos after formal charges had been brought against him in Peru, a claim that Venezuela denied. Venezuela temporarily severed relations with Peru between June 28 and July 28, 2001, but relations between the two countries were normalized. Chavez was eventually forced to hand over Montesinos. Fujimori called new elections in which he would not run. Fujimori fled to Japan and resigned from office in November 2000. Fujimori is recognized as a citizen in Japan, which refused to extradite him to Peru. Peru sought Mr. Fujimori's extradition so he can face charges of corruption and of authorizing death squads. He denied the charges, calling them politically motivated. In July 2003, Peru presented a formal extradition request to the Japanese government for Alberto Fujimori based on criminal charges.

The request was rejected by the Japanese government due to Fujimoriï¿½s Japanese citizenship. On October 15, 2004, Peru made a second request for extradition based on forgery and embezzlement charges, but the extradition process stalled. Peruï¿½s commercial and other ties with Japan were not adversely affected by the dispute. In October 2005 Fujimori left Japan after five years in exile and flew to Chile with the intention of returning to Peru to run for president next year. He was arrested in Chile in November 2005 at Peru's request. In September 2007 Chileï¿½s Supreme Court approved his extradition to Peru, ending a protracted legal battle. Fujimori faced new criminal charges linked to the government's forced sterilization program during his rule in the 1990s. More than 200,000 Peruvians say they were pressured into being sterilized between 1996 and 2000. An investigative committee said only about 10 percent participated voluntarily in Peru's controversial sterilization program during the 1990s.

The committee said most of the victims were Indians from poor areas with high birth rates. Some Peruvian lawmakers are pressing for genocide charges against Fujimori, alleging he was well aware of what was going on. Fujimori is serving four concurrent prison sentences. In December 2007, a Peruvian court convicted Fujimori on charges of abuse of power for ordering an illegal search and seizure of documents and sentenced him to 6 years in prison. In April 2009, a court convicted Fujimori of human rights violations and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Another court convicted the former president in July 2009 on embezzlement charges and sentenced him to 7.5 years, and ordered him to pay $10 million in civil reparations. In September 2009 he was found guilty of illegally tapping phones and bribing journalists, businessmen and opposition politicians. In July 2009 he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for giving $15m in state funds to his spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

On 07 April 2009 Alberto Fujimori was convicted of "crimes against humanity" and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Fujimori is serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in death squad killings in the 1990s. Fujimori sits in a jail cell near Lima serving his various sentences, where he might remain until the year 2034. Montesinos is imprisoned on multiple convictions, including running guns to Colombian rebels and organizing death squads. Demetrio Chavez, nicknamed "The Vatican," was released from prison 13 January 2016 after 22 years. In the early 1990s Chavez was one of the top suppliers of cocaine paste for Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Chavez claimed that he once paid the government of former president Alberto Fujimori $50,000 per month to fly drugs to Colombia from his private runway near a military base without interference. Chavez said the Andean country became a "narco-state" during her father's 1990-2000 government. Even from prison, Fujimori retained the capability of influencing the country's politics.

Though he is a prisoner, he is in a ï¿½golden cageï¿½ where he can receive innumerable visitors. The former President hosted 653 visits to his cell between 01 August to 28 October 2015. These visits included authorities from his place of origin and party sympathizers, while the rest were either business-related, newspaper reporters or people interested in Keiko Fujimoriï¿½s (his daughter)presidential campaign. NEWSLETTER Alberto Fujimori: Peruvian Visionary or Corrupt Politician? Updated April 06, 2016. The Self-Coup In 1992, not long after assuming the presidency, Fujimori found himself faced with a hostile congress dominated by opposition parties. He often found himself with his hands tied, unable to enact the reforms he felt were necessary to fix the economy and root out the terrorists. As his approval ratings were much higher than those of congress, he decided on a daring move: on April 5, 1992, he carried out a self-coup, dissolving all branches of the government except for the executive branch, which he represented.

He had the support of the military and the people, who agreed with him that the obstructionist congress was doing more harm than good. He called for the election of a special congress, which would write and pass a new constitution. He had just enough support for this, and a new constitution was enacted in 1993. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World The self-coup was a mixed success for Fujimori: it did allow him the freedom to act as he saw fit to fix the problems with the economy and terrorism. The 1993 constitution, largely drafted by his supporters, was an added bonus. However, the self-coup was condemned internationally. Several countries broke off diplomatic relations with Peru, including (for a time) the United States. The OAS (Organization of American States) chastised Fujimori for his high-handed action, but eventually was placated by the constitutional referendum. Scandals Fujimori separated from his wife, Susana Higuchi, in a very public 1994 divorce. She aired a lot of dirty laundry about their relationship, calling him a “tyrant.” She even threatened to run against him for president.

Although the divorce was damaging to Fujimori’s image, far worse were the various scandals involving Vladimiro Montesinos, head of Peru’s National Intelligence Service under Fujimori. Montesinos was caught on video in 2000 bribing an opposition senator to join with Fujimori, the ensuing uproar caused Montesinos to flee the country. Later, it was revealed that Montesinos was involved in far worse crimes than bribing politicians, including drug smuggling, vote tampering, embezzlement and arms trafficking. It was the myriad Montesinos scandals that would eventually force Fujimori to leave office. Downfall of Fujimori Fujimori’s popularity was already slipping when the Montesinos bribery scandal broke in September 2000. The people of Peru wanted a return to democracy now that the economy was fixed and the terrorists were on the run: they were a sick of Fujimori’s semi-dictator status. He had won the election earlier the same year, by an extremely narrow margin, amidst allegations of vote fraud.

When the scandal broke, it destroyed any remaining support Fujimori had, and in November he declared that there would be new elections in April of 2001, and that he would not be a candidate. A few days later, he went to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. As things had gotten uglier in his absence, he did not return to Peru, but rather went to Japan, faxing his resignation from the safety of his second home. Congress refused to accept his resignation, instead voting him out of office on charges of being “morally disabled.” Exile in Japan Alejandro Toledo was elected President of Peru in 2001 and immediately began a vicious anti-Fujimori campaign. He purged the legislature of Fujimori loyalists, brought charges against the exiled president and accused him against crimes against humanity for allegedly supporting a program to sterilize thousands of Peruvians of native descent. Peru asked for Fujimori to be extradited on several occasions, but Japan, which still saw him as a hero for his actions during the Japanese ambassador residence crisis, steadfastly refused to turn him over.

Montesinos, arrested in Venezuela in 2001 and extradited back to Peru, has spent the intervening years in prison and as new charges against him continue to appear, it is likely he will be there for a long time. Re-election Run and Capture In a shocking announcement, Fujimori declared in 2005 that he intended to run for re-election in the 2006 Peruvian elections. Despite the numerous allegations of corruption and misuse of power, Fujimori still fared well in polls taken in Peru at the time. On November 6, 2005, he flew to Santiago, Chile, where he was arrested by request of the Peruvian government. After some complicated legal wrangling, Chile decided to extradite him, and he was sent to Peru in September of 2007. He is currently in Peru facing a variety of charges from graft to illegal arms dealing.

Question: Alberto Fujimori became the President of which South American country in 1990?
Answer: Peru