Alberto Fujimori

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Alberto Fujimori , 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.

Fujimori, Alberto Kenya (b. 28 July 1938) President of Peru 1990–2000 Born in Lima, the son of Japanese immigrants studied agrarian science and maths, and eventually became head of an agricultural college. In response to the catastrophic state of the Peruvian economy and the ever-increasing power of the Sendero Luminoso guerrillas, he founded the Cambio 90 (Change 90) movement, and four months later was the surprise winner of the elections of 10 June 1990. Initially, his tough economic measures further increased domestic unrest, but they proved extremely successful. They reduced annual inflation from 7,000 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 1994, and reversed the economic decline with a growth rate of 7 per cent in 1993. Furthermore, he managed to contain the guerrillas. With the help of the army he led a coup in April 1992 in order to replace the officials in the state bureaucracy and judiciary with his own followers, and to rewrite the 1979 Constitution, not least to allow his re-election. Nicknamed ‘El Chino’ (the Chinaman) because of his oriental looks, he won in the first round of the presidential elections on 9 April 1995 with 64.8 per cent of the popular vote. He ignored a constitutional ban on running for a third period in office, and rigged the 2000 elections amidst growing popular, parliamentary, and judicial hostility. Shortly after his victory in these rigged elections, he was forced to flee to Japan, as his main backers among the secret service were charged with corruption. Despite the absence of a bilateral extradition agreement, Peru demanded from Japan the extradition of Fujimori. Japan refused, however, pointing out that Fujimori enjoyed the protection of Japanese citizenship.