Get To Know Your Dictator: Alberto Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori is a complicated dictator, as he is neither as insane as Trujillo nor as ineffective as Somoza. Fujimori was Peru’s president for 10 years and in that time improved their economic standing, broke political gridlock, and effectively ended the reign of terror of The Shining Path and the MRTA Maoist guerrilla groups. On the other hand his government was involved in massive corruption scandals, he suspended the constitution (or changed it) to further his objectives, and has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the brutal way he crushed the commie rebels. So the question is: Do the ends justify the means?

Fujimori was born in Lima to Japanese immigrant parents in 1938. Alberto spent much of his early adulthood as a professor and rector at an agrarian university (just like Pol Pot.) He decided to run for office in 1990 as a reform candidate with the Cambio 90 party. Peru was a deeply divided country that was economically depressed and rife with corruption. The Shining Path (assholes) and MRTA rebels (motherfuckers) controlled large portions of the country where they killed as many as 20,000 people in their 12 year terrorist campaign. The government of president Alan Garcia (a weenie) was deeply inept at combating any of these problems.

After his election, Alberto began the most awesomely named series of reforms ever, Fujishock! These reforms included combating the high inflation rate, easing tariffs and cleaning house in government positions, (long the refuge of useless jerks collecting a check for doing nothing.) Investment and capital began flowing into Peru and the economy stabilized. So, far so good for old Alberto…until…

FUJICOUP!

Alberto led an autocoup (known as the Fujicoup in Peru) against his own government when he suspended the constitution, dissolved the congress, and cleared out the judiciary. He had met resistance in the deadlocked congress that wasn’t letting him do what he wanted to do to combat the commie rebs. So, with the help of the military he helped turn Peru’s flawed democracy into a democratic-looking dictatorship. These actions were condemned by the international community, though they were widely approved of by the Peruvian people. Now with that pesky democracy out of the way, Alberto could finally do what he thought he needed to do.

It has been estimated that, between 1996 and 2000, Fujimori and his asswipe chief of the National Intelligence Service Valdimiro Montesino led a campaign to forcibly sterilize over 300,000 of Peru’s indigenous people to supposedly control the population (or commit ethnic cleansing…you know, tomato tomahto.) Then he went after The Shining Path with a vengeance. He sent military supported death squads into the mountains to round up anyone that was in any way associated with the rebels. He imprisoned, tortured, and murdered thousands without trial in secret prisons in hidden locations (hey, that sounds familiar.) One famous case was an incident when the death squad Grupo Colina massacred 25 people, (including children), under suspicion of being members of The Shining Path…but they were just people at a party, whoops! He effectively crushed the leftist rebel movement and intimidated anyone else who might of thought about opposing him.

Alberto and his cronies changed the constitution to allow him to run for a third term, which he won with a narrow margin. It seems that people were getting tired of all the killing and whatnot. Then a scandal broke out when footage of Montesino bribing officials came out. His supporters abandoned him like rats from a sinking ship, leading to Alberto faxing his resignation to congress, setting a precedent as the first head of state to resign by fax machine. Alberto fled to Japan where he hoped to spend the rest of his days eating sushi and watching hentai, but he wasn’t going to get away that easy.

The Peruvian Congress took away his diplomatic immunity and wanted to try him for embezzlement, drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity. He returned to Peru and faced a trial that ended in an April 7, 2009 conviction for crimes against humanity and a sentence of 25 years in prison and 6 years for abuse of power. Amnesty International has said:

Amnesty International considers that the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Alberto Fujimori (1990 - 2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law.

Fujimori was a murderer, thief, and general, all-around asshole and yet many people in Peru still think that he was exactly what the country needed. The idea is similar to those espoused by the Bush administration, that in times of crisis a necessary suspension of human rights is OK.

This, of course, is a giant crock of shit meant to excuse brutality as necessity. You are still an asshole, Alberto. May you rot in prison for the rest of your life.