2024-09-13 09:25:36
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who was released from prison in December while serving a sentence for crimes against humanity, died on Wednesday at the age of 86 at his home in Lima, where he was recovering from treatment for tongue cancer.
His children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori announced on social media X the death of the controversial former president “after a long battle with cancer.”
Of Japanese origin, but popularly known as ‘el Chino’, Fujimori received improvised tributes after his death outside his home in the Lima district of San Borja.
“He put an end to terrorism, stabilized the economy” and did not die in prison, as his enemies had demanded, Nancy Gonzalez, a woman who visited the house where the former president died, told AFP.
Keiko Fujimori reported in X that her father will be laid to rest starting on Thursday at the Museo de la Nación, where she invited the population. The burial will take place on Saturday.
“We look forward to seeing everyone who wants to say goodbye to him in person,” he wrote.
The government declared a period of national mourning on September 12, 13 and 14 and announced that Fujimori would receive “the funeral honors that correspond to a sitting president.”
Fujimori ruled the country with an iron fist from 1990 to 2000 during the era of bloody Maoist guerrillas. He was released in December after spending 16 years in a prison for former presidents in eastern Lima.
The internal conflict or “war on terror” – as it was officially called – left more than 69,000 dead and 21,000 missing in the period 1980-2000, the vast majority of them civilians, according to a truth commission.
“The Chinese are not dead, the Chinese are here!” Fujimori supporters shouted in front of his house.
The former president was serving a 25-year sentence for kidnapping, forced disappearance and homicide, among other human rights violations committed by state agents. The court ordered his release on humanitarian grounds.
“He had to pay for his guilt, but now that he has died, what can be done? He has not served his sentence,” lamented Juana Carrión, president of the National Association of Relatives of Kidnapped, Detained and Disappeared People of Peru, in statements to AFP.
– «Authoritarian and populist» –
The Peruvian presidency stated on social network X that it “regrets the sensitive death of the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori” and sent condolences to the family.
Chief of Cabinet Gustavo Adrianzén said he would coordinate the details of the funeral with the Fujimori family.
A promoter of economic growth, Fujimori was a “precursor in Latin America of a style of doing politics,” political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP.
In his opinion, the former president burst onto the public scene as an outsider by defeating writer Mario Vargas Llosa at the polls and promoted an “authoritarian and populist” model that has been replicated in many other countries in the region, in left-wing and right-wing movements.
– Heavy hand –
Fujimori’s health has deteriorated rapidly over the past week since completing oral radiotherapy in August, sources close to the family told AFP in recent hours.
Fujimori was last seen publicly last Thursday when he was leaving a clinic in the Miraflores district where he had a CT scan, he said.
On July 14, his daughter Keiko, a former presidential candidate, announced that the right-wing leader would run for president in the 2026 elections.
“Let’s see (if I am a presidential candidate),” said the former president a few days ago from his wheelchair.
Last May, Fujimori announced that a malignant tumor had been detected in his tongue, after suffering from a cancerous lesion in the same organ for more than 27 years.
Since his release, it was common to see him in public places walking with a small oxygen tank and a cannula due to the respiratory failure he suffered.
The news of his death spread like wildfire on social media, where supporters and detractors competed in praise and criticism.
Fujimori managed to defeat the Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso, whose main leaders were arrested.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for two massacres of civilians carried out by an army squad in the fight against that armed group in the early 1990s.
Fujimori’s authoritarian profile was consummated in 1992, when he dissolved Congress and called a Constituent Assembly that allowed him to be re-elected in 1995 and 2000 with a Constitution tailored to his needs.
In April 1997, the rescue of hostages at the Japanese embassy, which ended 122 days later with the death of 14 attackers, one hostage and two soldiers, catapulted him into the spotlight as a hero in the eyes of ordinary Peruvians.
In November 2000, facing mounting allegations of corruption and human rights violations, he fled to Japan, where he remained for several years.
Following news of his death, Japanese Chief of Staff Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the country would “never forget the efforts made by former President Fujimori” in rescuing the hostages.
But he also acknowledged that there are “different assessments” of his mandate, including “the fact that he was convicted of human rights violations and was imprisoned.”
© Agence France-Presse
