Latin America’s populist prototype: Peru’s Fujimori leaves divisive legacy
| Lima, Peru
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, a prototype of a populist authoritarian leader that would be replicated in Latin America for decades, was buried in Lima with state honors over the weekend. He died on Sept. 11.
Mr. Fujimori is widely credited with rescuing Peru from a painful period of hyperinflation and hunger in the 1990s, and oversaw the dismantling of leftist insurgent groups that terrorized Peruvians with car bombs and brutal massacres for more than a decade.
Why We Wrote This
Former President Alberto Fujimori had been out of office for more than two decades when he died. But his legacy – from economic “Fuji-shocks” to human rights abuses – still divides Peru today.
Many of his supporters revere him for delivering aid and basic infrastructure to long-neglected rural regions. "Fujimori gave us electricity, and oh, what joy!” remembers Michael Santa Cruz, who grew up in northern Peru.
But Mr. Fujimori's hold on power was riddled with authoritarian power grabs, corruption, and human rights abuses.
“He died without asking for forgiveness from his victims,” says Rosa del Carmen Reátegui, one of hundreds of mostly Indigenous and poor women in Peru who say they were forced or tricked into sterilization by Mr. Fujimori’s family planning program.
Today, his legacy in Peruvian politics persists, with a right-wing political movement bearing his name still making waves.
He was a populist outsider who shocked the world by defeating the establishment favorite in a presidential election. In office, he ran roughshod over institutions and human rights, dividing a nation. And despite multiple criminal convictions, his legacy has continued to play an outsize role in politics.
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, prototype of a populist authoritarian leader that would be replicated in Latin America for decades, was buried in Lima with state honors over the weekend. He died on Sept. 11.
During the three-day public wake in Lima, thousands of Peruvians lined up to get a last glimpse of a right-wing leader who marked a clear dividing line in Peru’s tumultuous history. Even today, some 24 years since he fled office amid widespread protests, his eponymous political movement, Fujimorismo, is influential at all levels of government.
Why We Wrote This
Former President Alberto Fujimori had been out of office for more than two decades when he died. But his legacy – from economic “Fuji-shocks” to human rights abuses – still divides Peru today.
While protesters shouted “assassin” and “corrupt” as his casket was escorted by police vehicles to the presidential palace for a red-carpet farewell from President Dina Boluarte, others queued for hours to bid teary goodbyes. “This is a demonstration of the gratitude the Peruvian people feel,” says Fortunato Lagura, a business administrator, as he waited for more than two hours for his turn to pay his respects.
The “myth” of Fujimori
Mr. Fujimori was born in Lima to Japanese immigrants and was a young child during World War II, when Peru’s large Japanese diaspora was persecuted. He became an agricultural engineer, then a university rector, and swept to power with left-wing support in 1990 after campaigning aboard a tractor with the slogan “Honor, technology, work.” He defeated Mario Vargas Llosa, a white free marketeer who would go on to win a Nobel Prize in literature.
He is widely credited with rescuing Peru from a painful period of hyperinflation and hunger, and oversaw the destruction of leftist insurgent groups that terrorized Peruvians with car bombs and brutal massacres for more than a decade.
He had a knack for showmanship that earned him the respect of Peruvians who were fed up with years of lawlessness and inaction – calmly announcing that he was sending the military to take over Congress and the courts in 1992, and proudly walking over the dead bodies of defeated insurgents who took hostages at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in 1996.
Many of his supporters revere him for delivering aid and basic infrastructure to long-neglected rural regions. “He was never just sitting here in Lima. He was in the provinces with the poor people,” says Michael Santa Cruz, a computer technician from northern Peru. Mr. Santa Cruz was 7 ears old when Mr. Fujimori strode into his elementary school and distributed food, clothes, and school materials. Soon, he says, his small town of Chongoyape had two new school buildings, paved roads, and electricity.
“We used to use kerosene lamps at night. Fujimori gave us electricity, and oh, what joy!” Mr. Santa Cruz recalls. “We could have refrigerators.”
But he also created an archetype for authoritarian populism in a democratic setting that is still emulated today, says Gonzalo Banda, a Peruvian political scientist. Long before Javier Milei promised austerity for Argentina or Nayib Bukele packed half-naked prisoners into a jail in El Salvador, Mr. Fujimori delivered the “Fuji-shock” that breathed life back into Peru’s economy and put insurgents in cages to display before the press.
“He was Milei before Milei. Bukele before Bukele. Chávez before Chávez,” says Mr. Banda, referring in the last case to Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. “He was a proto-populist, and that’s why his legacy will continue to be defended, especially by the right. They need his myth.”
Mr. Fujimori’s two terms in office were riddled with authoritarian power grabs, corruption, and human rights abuses. After videos of his spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos bribing lawmakers, businessmen, and journalists with stacks of cash were made public in 2000, Mr. Fujimori fled growing protests for Japan, sending his resignation via fax.
“Fujimori was a forerunner of a type of politician who comes to power through the democratic process, but who undermines institutions from the executive branch,” says Mauricio Zavaleta, a Peruvian political scientist. “He had to play by certain democratic rules, but he gradually broke” them.
In 2009, Mr. Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the paramilitary massacres of 25 civilians during a ruthless counterinsurgency campaign. He was also convicted for corruption, embezzlement, usurpation of powers, espionage, and the kidnapping of a journalist. He was Peru’s first former president to be imprisoned in what were widely seen as fair trials, earning Peru international acclaim for fighting impunity.
A number of trials and investigations for other crimes were still pending when he died.
“He died without asking for forgiveness from his victims,” says Rosa del Carmen Reátegui, one of hundreds of mostly Indigenous and poor women in Peru who say they were forced or tricked into sterilization by Mr. Fujimori’s family planning program.
“He was never convicted for our sterilizations,” Ms. Reátegui says. “Fujimori has left us with endless trauma, pain, physical, and psychological suffering, and the continuous struggle to find justice and reparations for the harm caused.”
Peru’s divides
Part of Mr. Fujimori’s lasting political influence is due to the failure of other political leaders and parties to forge a lasting connection with voters in Peru. And many have been tainted with criminal probes of their own. Most of the presidents since Mr. Fujimori have come under investigation for corruption or human rights abuses.
“Fujimori was corrupt. I don’t doubt it,” says José Orizano, a taxi driver in Lima. “But so are all the rest. At least he did something for Peru.”
Regardless of individual opinions about the former president, Fujimorismo is still very much alive. The right-wing populist movement has reemerged as a political force in recent years, gaining influence in key institutions – Congress, the presidency, Peru’s top court, and the ombudsman’s office.
His daughter Keiko Fujimori came in second in the past three presidential elections, losing by a small margin each time. Today, her party is the best-organized political machine in the country, says Mr. Zavaleta. And the fact that Mr. Fujimori died at home, instead of in prison, was a reminder of that.
Mr. Fujimori served just 16 years of his 25-year prison sentence, thanks to a pardon granted in 2017 by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to appease a faction of Fujimorista lawmakers who helped him survive an impeachment vote.
Mr. Fujimori was returned to prison in 2019 after a court found the pardon violated international law. Last December, Peru’s top court, whose magistrates were appointed by Congress with key backing from Fujimorista legislators, restored the pardon in defiance of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Current President Dina Boluarte, who despite first taking office as a leftist vice president, has since allied with right-wing Fujimoristas, authorized his release.
Political analysts say the pomp of Mr. Fujimori’s wake and funeral would have been unthinkable under previous administrations.
“The points on which there was agreement, that Fujimorismo was responsible for nefarious crimes ... are being challenged more and more,” says Mr. Banda. Peruvians who were once divided by their attitudes to the controversial former president, he says, are “like two countries that broke ties but now send ambassadors to each other and are courting one other.”
