alberto fujimori

[lapoker17]

i saw a film last night that blew me away. i was going to put it in the documentaries thread, but have decided it needs its own…i hope others with knowledge of fujimori and peru will chime in as my education came from an 80 minute documentary and i'm eager to learn more. some chronology may be off, and some minor facts as well, but here’s the gist of it:

the fall of fujimori follows the reign of alberto fujimori, the former president of peru. the son of japanese immigrants, fujimori grew up in peru and finished first in his college class after studying agricultural engineering. he received advanced math degrees internationally, and returned to peru to become the dean of the agricultural university.

in 1990 he decided to run for the peruvian presidency and was given little thought or attention by the establishment. the country was near implosion due to hyperinflation (inflation rate was 7600%) and was also fighting a losing battle against terrorist groups the shining path and the mrta.

fujimori rigged up a tractor with a trailer, hung political signs on it, and began driving around the country meeting the people - many of them living in the poorest ghettos and shantytowns. these people were largely ignored by the other candidates and they latched onto fujimori - a japanese math professor. after making little noise in the early polls, his grassroots efforts began have a staggering effect. in the month leading up to the election fujimori came out of nowhere - gaining 1-2% every day - and was ultimately elected by the people.

on taking office, he immediately embarked on a massive war on terrorism. he appointed vladimir montesinos - once charged with divulging military secrets to the us - as his head of intelligence. montesinos - a lawyer specializing in the defense of drug cartels - had defended fujimori in a 1990 investigation into fujimori's real estate dealings. the charges were ultimately dropped after some important documents "disappeared".

montesinos oversaw the the war on terror and, among other things, formed death squads to eliminate the suspected terrorist leaders. he became the second most powerful man in peru.

the iron fist approach was protested by fujimori's opponents in congress, so he shut down everything. all political buildings, the newspaper - anything that was in his way. he declared it “self coup”, and though it sounds draconian, it was widely welcomed by the population – they believed in fujimori. he created a new constitution that gave him the powers he wanted, and continued ruling the way he wanted to - an elected dictator.

after decimating the terrorist organizations, and rescuing the economy from certain death by spurring mass privatization and peru's participation in the global economy, fujimori was reelected and continued to rule as he pleased. he finally tracked down the elusive leader of the shining path and sent him to jail. he withstood the capture of the Japanese embassy and a 4 month hostage stalemate with leaders of the mrta, before leading an assault on the compound and saving all but one of the 80-some hostages and killing all of the terrorists. the key to the attack was a tunnel conceived by fujimori – still an engineer.

seemingly out of nowhere, his wife began speaking out against him and lodged charges of corruption. during his reelection campaign, she decided to throw her hat into the ring and oppose him - all while they were still married and living together in the presidential palace. they even continued to eat their meals together. after her husband's reelection they were divorced and their daughter keiko became first lady even though she was a college student in boston.

fujimori was elected to a 3rd term by a small majority, and there was widespread rumor of election fraud. Soon after, a video tape surfaced showing montesinos bribing an opposition congressman to defect to fujimori’s side. hundreds more tapes soon became public – but only after they were reviewed by fujimori - causing many to assume he had screened all videos where he was incriminated before releasing the rest to the public. a nationwide manhunt for montesinos began, and fujimori lead the mission riding around the country directing a unit of commandos.

the tide turned strongly against the president as most of the citizens became convinced he was, at the very least, complicit in the activities of montesinos. after a trip to an international conference in brunei, fujimori had his plane divert to japan. he faxed his resignation to peruvian officials and was granted asylum in japan. in the coming years he was added to interpol’s most wanted list, as he lived comfortably in japan giving speeches and writing books – seen as a hero who defeated terrorism by his new japanese friends.

despite his untimely exit and his links to corruption and human rights violations, fujimori continued to be loved by the peruvian people and sought to return and run for president once again in 2006. he was, however, disqualified from running and was never placed on the ballot. He continues to live in japan.

………………….


i am constantly amazed at how little i know. prior to seeing this film, i had never even heard of fujimori, and knew very little of the plight of peru. i plan on doing a lot of reading on the subject, but as of now, i think this guy kicks ass. the battle he faced was unwinnable, yet he won. the dilemma of saving his people and his country by unconventional and perhaps illegal means, or playing by the rules and continuing to watch them both die is gargantuan in a political sense, but to me seems an easy choice – and one i would most likely lack the courage to undertake. he was a man of conviction who was unafraid. a hero who saved a nation, and a people, from certain death.

i’d encourage all to see the film.

[MicroBob]

This would be an interesting film to see.
But I think your contention that he was widely loved by the Peruvian people is misinformed and the documentary may have over-played the hero-worship he was receiving.


You probably now know more about Peru than I do (albeit from what may have been a somewhat one-sided portrayal of Fujimori).
But my GF is Peruvian and I know her family well also.

My GF was only a child when all this was going on so her knowledge of the situation is somewhat sketchy (she left Peru in 93 when she was 16).

Anyway, perhaps her family initially had ideas of Fujimori being awesome. But that's not the impression I get.

The Shining Path and other terrorist stuff going on there sounded really scary to me and he was trying to battle that.


But fast-forward to today after all that stuff went down:
when it became known that Fujimori wanted to run again for the presidency in 2006 my GF and her family's reaction was, "OMG. Could this get any more ridiculous?!?! i just hope the populace isn't stupid enough to actually elect him again if he somehow makes his way onto the ballot. He was killing our own people for crying-out loud."

In short, He is NOT widely welcomed.
I have no idea what his approval-rating would be across Peru today. But my GF and her family are fairly sensible people who think the guy was pretty damn scary or borderline-evil.

This is mostly my impression from my GF.
Her Dad's political leanings are a bit different than hers so perhaps he would have some thoughts along the lines of, "He got WAY too carried away. But our country was so screwed-up then that perhaps that's all that would work."

I believe that the death-squads that Fujimori put in place weren't infallible. It is my impression that merely opposing Fujimori's tactics could also lead to death.

Some people viewed Fujimori's presidency as not much more than another reign of terror just from a different person.

I would still be interested in seeing the documentary though.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be such a good idea for my GF though.
She would likely get so upset at seeing Fujimori portrayed as a hero that she would end up breaking the TV.

Maybe I'll try just sharing this post with her and we'll see where it goes.


In other news: I recently returned from a 2 week trip to Lima and Cusco and found the country to be very interesting.
Lima is big, crowded and really dusty (it almost never rains in Lima). But no trash or broken-glass ANYWHERE that i saw. Overall, pretty clean actually as far as trash. Just smoggy and dusty.
I know I didn't see the really dangerous parts. But I did see a good portion of the city (visiting this friend in this area of the city, visiting that relative in that area of the city, etc) and it all felt much safer than I was expecting.

Same for Cusco where tourists are welcomed with open-arms. Beggars and people selling stuff will come practically running to you if you are a typical looking white-guy like me though because white-guy = money.

Machu Pichu really is a pretty worthwhile tourist-destination imo so if something like that is of interest to you I recommend making the trip.

[lapoker17]

good stuff bob. i actually found the documentary to be reasonably even in it's bias. fujimori was interviewed extensively and was asked tough questions. the film also talked about the backlash among peruvian people and i should have qualified some of my statements. i did not mean to portray him as a widely popular figure today, but more as a legend who still enjoys strong endorsement from a vocal part of the population (probably not near a majority).

you alluded to the main point i absorbed from the film. quoting you: "He got WAY too carried away. But our country was so screwed-up then that perhaps that's all that would work".

this is how i saw things - albeit from an 80 minute film.

and your wife's contention that his returning to run in 2006 would be "ridiculous" was spot on. it would be.

but my initial impression was that this time in peru called for radical change. change that would never have happened without fujimori. if your wife is old enough to remember the inflation of the 70s and 80s and the desperate state of things in the country, i wonder if she, despite of her dislike for him, would still think he did, in some ways, save a country that was sinking.

as i said, i'm a total novice on all of this stuff, and as a iread more i'm sure my thoughts will evolve.

i'd love to hear more from your wife and her family's perspective.

[Banks2334]

lapoker,
Not sure I'm with you on the "end justifies the means" outlook you have on Fujimori. Yes, the country was in horrible shape but he also did some very bad things. He is currently under arrest in Chile awaiting extradition to Peru for corruption and crimes against humanity.
Where did you see the film? I assume in LA? I'd like to see it for myself.

[lapoker17]

i knew he had been detained in ecuador sometime last year, but thought they allowed him to return to japan. did he then go back to south america? doesn't seem too smart.

it's out on dvd - i got it from netflix.

how do you know about fujimori? tell me what you know.

"but he also did some very bad things"

can you give me examples? are you talking about paying off politicians and killing suspected terrorists without real trials, or are there a bunch of other facts about crimes i didn't mention?

[lapoker17]

oh, i also know about the sterilization project if that's one of the horrible things. and yes, if true, i deem that to be his worst crime by far.

[MicroBob]

Just to clarify - GF and I aren't married yet. No biggie.

GF also has a pretty skewed version of the past.
Was 16 when she left in 1994 (I erroneously said 93).
She only returned to Peru for the first time just last month (country doesn't even look the same according to her).
She does keep up with the news on direct-TV latino package and her Dad talks politics with her on the phone.

Anyway, she was fairly sheltered as a kid but remembers some scary stuff with a tear-gas bomb here, having to run over to there, etc.

But mostly she just went from her neighborhood to her private-school, and then to a different 'academy' in the evenings to learn english.

OTOH, her Dad seems somewhat knowledgeable and very opinionated.
So perhaps I'll end up getting some thoughts from him eventually.


Actually, I too would be interested to know if she thinks that Fujimori's reign could almost be viewed as a 'necessary evil' due to how screwed-up her country was then.
I'm guessing this documentary could open her eyes a bit more and get her out of perhaps overly-simplistic thinking, "Fujimori = Bad guy who went around killing people."

But she REALLY thinks this guy was bad news.
All those 'crimes against humanity' that he's charged with are kind of hard to excuse.


You may be interested to know that the last president, Alejandro Toledo, didn't get re-elected.
He left with an approval rating of around 15% or so even though it appears he did some decent things for the country.
Had been trying to promote Peru as a tourist destination for Americans and Europeans to bring new money into the economy.

This seems a decent idea to me. Saw quite a few tourists in Cusco. Not many in Lima.
But my hunch is that the poorer people of Peru may be thinking, "Rich white tourists? So what? We need to eat and we REALLY need less crime."

Anyway, the guy that won the 2006 election is the same guy who was president in the late 80's right before Fujimori.
Yeah, the guy who was supposedly 'in charge' when all that Shining-Path stuff was going on.

My GF's reaction, "Does my country just not have any memory at all? This is incredible."
She's somewhat concerned that things could turn for the worse with this guy in charge and that they could really be in trouble in the next few yrs.


But it's a somewhat different Peru now.
Not entirely 'safe' of course.
But much more modern and somewhat more business.
Inflation is not ridiculously hideous. Not as much crime, although there's still a lot.

When she left in 93 I believe they had only recently gotten their first McDonalds.
Now they have American restaurants all over the place as well as some other businesses.
2 of her best friends from high-school now work in offices at UPS for example.

The brand new outdoor mall in the very nice Miraflores district of Lima is something they seem quite proud of. It is pretty much as nice as any nice-ish mall in the U.S. and seemed quite busy. The pricier, new condos in Miraflores look quite nice too.

So, with all the positive momentum I see them having (from my somewhat limited observation), hopefully things won't get screwed up too horribly.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
oh, i also know about the sterilization project if that's one of the horrible things. and yes, if true, i deem that to be his worst crime by far.

[/ QUOTE ]


As I said, most of my info is from a GF who isn't very politically minded who is also a bit young to remember a lot of what was happening.

What's the sterilization project?
Without even knowing the details it already sounds pretty evil.

[lapoker17]

bob - from wiki:

"In 2002, a report commissioned by the ultra-conservative Catholic Health Minister Fernando Carbone suggest that Fujimori had pressured 200,000 indigenous people in rural areas into being sterilized from 1996 to 2000. The report suggested that Fujimori might be guilty of genocide under international law. Despite that, the ad-hoc commission of the Peruvian Congress presided over by Dr Chavez Chuchon, dismissed this accusation [citation needed] due to insuffient evidence in 2003.[3]"

[Banks2334]

lapoker,
I worked with a guy from Peru who emigrated to the US in the late 90's. He used to tell me stories about Peru which sparked a casual interest in what the hell happened there. From what I gather Fujimori was your typical authoritarian who wielded power thru corruption, election fraud, constitutional rewrites and violence. Yes, he defeated the Shinning Path, but his army(death squads) also murdered innocent people in the name of fighting terrorism. His "sterilization program" was another brilliant idea. I'm not saying he didn't do anything good, but wonder if he wasn't romanticized. Then again, people think our president is doing a great job so go figure. I'm definitely going to rent the movie this week. Thanks for the post.