Peru has declared three days of national mourning after the death of its former strongman leader Alberto Fujimori, who died on Wednesday aged 86 and was the only Peruvian president to have been convicted and jailed for human rights crimes.
The government of Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, also decreed that flags be flown at half-mast in public and military buildings as Fujimori, who governed Peru throughout the 1990s, lies in state in the Museum of the Nation until the burial on Saturday.
“We are waiting for all those who want to say goodbye to him personally. We thank you for your support and great expressions of solidarity in these painful moments,” his daughter and the leader of the Fuerza Popular political party, Keiko Fujimori, posted on X.
Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, remains a highly divisive figure in Peru. The former agronomist of Japanese heritage inspired unquestioning loyalty from his followers – despite being jailed for corruption and human rights crimes – and opprobrium from his detractors for his iron-fisted decade in power.
His autocratic leadership left an enduring legacy, which continues to shape politics in Peru to this day, as his daughter Keiko – a three-time presidential candidate – leads a rightwing populist political movement.
Boluarte’s decision to announce three days of mourning has sparked mixed reactions in the country, where the Fujimori dynasty continues to polarise the nation’s fragmented political scene.
While many used social media to pay homage to the authoritarian leader who mobilised troops and tanks to dissolve congress in a 1992 self-coup, there was outrage among the families of victims of the death squad killings for which he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
“Fujimori, condemned for human rights violations and corruption, dies – and a murderous government like the one in the 90s pays tribute to him,” posted Gisela Ortiz, whose brother, a university student, was killed in a 1992 death squad massacre that Fujimori was convicted of ordering. “Official messages of regret when there is impunity for his crimes.”
Former lawmaker Víctor Andrés García Belaúnde told Peruvian TV: “Alberto Fujimori’s family must renounce state honours to avoid opening more wounds.”
Boluarte, who succeeded the ousted president Pedro Castillo in December 2022 and presided over deadly anti-government protests, has relied on the support of a powerful group of lawmakers led by Keiko Fujimori.
Soon after Fujimori was granted a humanitarian pardon last year, he gave his blessing to her unpopular government, pronouncing that his political bloc had agreed her government should continue until the term ends in 2026, despite calls for her resignation.
Fujimori’s supporters credit him with stamping out the Maoist Shining Path movement and putting the economy back on track after rampant hyperinflation. Many others believe he ruled as an iron-fisted dictator during his decade in power, which was marked by widespread human rights abuses and rampant corruption.
“Alberto Fujimori should be remembered as Peru’s best ever president and most Peruvians recognise it,” said Jackeline Quispe Mendoza, a supporter who attended a vigil outside the family home on Wednesday night.
“He defeated the Shining Path in the 1990s and the cruel and bloodthirsty terrorist Abimael [Guzmán].”
In 2009, Fujimori was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to 25 years in what was described as a landmark ruling for human rights cases in Latin America.
He was released from prison in December 2023 after Peru’s constitutional court ruled he should be granted a humanitarian pardon, even though the inter-American court of human rights asked the Peruvian state to “refrain from executing the order”.
Fujimori, a former university professor, burst on to the political scene in 1990 as an “outsider” presidential candidate, winning a surprise victory against writer and Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa.
Despite his government’s violent repression, he remained relatively popular even after dissolving congress in April 1992.
But after a rigged election in 2000 and videos that emerged showing Fujimori’s spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos bribing lawmakers with stacks of cash, Peruvians tired of his government’s rampant corruption.
Soon after – on an official trip to Asia – Fujimori fled to Japan, his parent’s homeland, and resigned by fax, just as he was about to start a third term in 2000.
In 2005, after five years in Japan, he attempted to make a political comeback and was arrested in Chile from where he was extradited in 2007 to face trial in Peru.
For many Peruvians, it was a reckoning long overdue. Carlos Rivera, a human rights lawyer at the Legal Defense Institute and a prosecutor in Fujimori’s trial, said the former leader would be remembered for his “crimes against humanity”.
In 2009, Fujimori was convicted of ordering two massacres carried out by the army death squad Grupo Colina.
“He died refusing to acknowledge the grave crimes he committed during his 10-year reign, from grave human rights violations to massive corruption,” Jo-Marie Burt, professor of political science at George Mason University, told the Guardian.
“Some may laud him for his economic stabilisation policies or for ending the Shining Path insurgency. But the harm he wrought to civic life, the cynicism he embedded in the political system, his cavalier justification of murder to achieve his ends – is the dark legacy that Peru has yet to fully grapple [with].”
