Thu, 16 April 11:00 2009

Peru jails its former president

Alberto FUJIMORI, president of Peru from 1990 until 2000, was found guilty, on April 7, of causing the deaths of 15 people in 1991 and 10 in 1992, as well as illegally detaining a journalist, Gustavo Gorriti and a businessman, Samuel Dyer. The 16-month trial did little more than skim the surface of 10 years of institutional transgressions but, that Fujimori was finally brought to justice and will serve a 25-year prison sentence, meant victory to his former opponents.
Of Japanese descent, Alberto Fujimori is Latin America’s first democratically elected president to be tried for violating human rights but the former president complained that he was the victim of double standards. If he was being prosecuted for human rights atrocities, argued Fujimori, why was Peru’s current president, Alan Garcia, re-elected in 2006, not charged for his alleged part in massacres of Maoist rebels during his first term, from 1985 until 1990? Fujimori also cited Garcia’s predecessor, Fernando Belaunde, allegedly responsible for thousands of disappearances and deaths after he ordered the Army to deal with the ‘Sendero Luminoso’ (Shining Path) guerrillas in 1983.
Belaunde died in 2002, before state prosecutors could renew investigations following the repeal of Fujimori’s 1995 amnesty for the country’s security forces. An official investigation into Alan Garcia’s actions while president concluded that there was insufficient evidence to link him with abuses during his presidency. His responsibility was pronounced political, not criminal.
Around 37 per cent of the 70,000 people who died during the ‘Sendero Luminoso’ guerrilla conflict between 1980 and 2000, were killed by the Army and security forces. The majority of deaths occurred between 1980 and 1990 but what cannot be denied is that, when Alberto Fujimori became president, Peru – nominally rich in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc - was in the grip of galloping inflation and national security had been compromised thanks to Sendero Luminoso and another group, ‘Túpac Amaro’.
Inflation and the guerrillas were curbed but corruption, intimidation and human rights abuses flourished. After the government collapsed in 2000, amidst political and financial scandals, Fujimori fled to Japan, returning to neighbouring Chile five years later, hoping to participate in the 2005 presidential elections. Instead, he was imprisoned at the request of Peru’s government and finally extradited in September 2007.
Fujimori’s daugher, Keiko, intends to run in the 2011 presidential elections and vows that she will pardon her father if elected. This appears unlikely and, although his lawyers are expected to appeal against the harsh sentence, Alberto Fujimori is destined to bide his time where most Peruvians believe he belongs – in prison.

Set as favorite

Email this

Comments (0) Add Comment