LIMA – Former president Alberto Fujimori is back in the media spotlight in Peru, amid announcements that he is not only planning to return from exile in Japan, but also has his eye on running in the 2006 presidential elections – despite the fact that he is a fugitive from justice and legally prohibited from doing so.
Fujimori governed Peru from 1990 until 2000, when he went into self-exile in Japan, fleeing charges of corruption and numerous other crimes. The former leader’s parents are Japanese, and he himself is a national of that country.
While a profusion of posters and graffiti announcing Fujimori’s return have cropped up in a number of Peruvian cities, the biggest splash was made last week in what many consider a carefully planned publicity stunt.
On May 18, Fujimori waltzed into the Peruvian consulate in Tokyo, accompanied by his attorney and two bodyguards, to renew his Peruvian identity card, as if he were just an average citizen.
But Fujimori is not just an average citizen living abroad: he is facing prosecution in 20 cases back in Peru, involving charges that include corruption, abuse of power, and human rights violations. Peruvian authorities have made two unsuccessful attempts to have the former president extradited from Japan, in addition to issuing international warrants for his arrest.
Nevertheless, Fujimori completed his consular paperwork without further incident. Critics have charged that by entering the consulate, the former leader had entered Peruvian territory, and should have been immediately arrested.
But the Peruvian authorities maintain that this only holds true in the case of embassies, and that the role of a consulate is strictly to represent Peruvians abroad, not to fulfill police functions.
Observers have countered that the consulate staff could have called on Interpol to serve the international order for his arrest.
But instead, the episode ended with a smiling Fujimori leaving the consulate – an image captured in a videotape that was swiftly distributed by his supporters to Peruvian TV networks.
Fujimori already has his own weekly radio program in Peru, taped in Tokyo and called La Hora del Chino (El Chino – the Chinese Man – is Peru’s all-purpose nickname for people of Asian descent, and was embraced by the former president as his trademark).
On Saturday’s show, Fujimori stated, "I have never stopped being Peruvian, because not only was I born in Peru, but I was also president of the country for an entire decade." As a result, he added, the fact that he went to the consulate to renew his Peruvian ID was nothing unusual.
At the end of Fujimori’s taped address, the show’s host, Carlos Raffo – who is also the former leader’s media advisor – enthusiastically declared, "This is for real! Fujimori is coming back!"
Ismael Vega, director of the Peruvian branch of the international human rights organization Amnesty International, told IPS, "Yes, we believe he is campaigning, and that was the reason behind his visit to the consulate."
Amnesty International also wants Fujimori back in Peru – but in order to stand trial for numerous human rights abuses committed during his rule.
Fujimori became president in 1990 through democratic elections, but on April 5, 1992 – in an act similar to the "self-coup" staged by former Uruguayan dictator Juan María Bordaberry in 1973 – he dissolved Congress and installed a de facto government that ruled by decree until December of the same year.
With the blessing of the Organization of American States, headed at the time by Colombian secretary general César Gaviria, and backed by a new constitution written to his own specifications and adopted in 1993, Fujimori governed Peru for another eight years, successfully seeking reelection in 1995 and 2000.
His decade-long authoritarian regime was marked by the establishment of a repressive paramilitary apparatus and a corruption ring overseen by presidential aide and intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who is currently in prison awaiting trial in Peru.
Reports of human rights abuses during the Fujimori years abound. According to Amnesty International, 306 people were forcibly "disappeared" in 1991, along with another 178 in 1992. Following the adoption by decree of an "anti-terrorist law" in 1992, hundreds of innocent people were sent to jail.
One of the most highly publicized incidents was the abduction and murder of nine students and a professor from La Cantuta University in July 1992. The victims were burned and then buried by a paramilitary group formed by the National Intelligence Service (SIN), headed up by Montesinos.
Both Montesinos and Fujimori face charges in connection with that case, which is the grounds for one of the requests to have the former president extradited from Japan.
In the meantime, the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International estimates that corruption during the Fujimori regime involved at least $700 million.
Fujimori managed to hold onto the presidency in the 2000 elections despite widespread allegations of fraud. But that November, barely four months into his new term, he attended an international meeting in Brunei and then headed to Japan, where he sent a fax to Lima announcing his resignation.
He never returned. The Peruvian Congress declared his post vacant, removing him on grounds of "moral incapacity."
Fujimori currently faces close to two dozen lawsuits filed by a special prosecutor’s office. Several have been handed over to a special court that has called on the Peruvian ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs to order his extradition.
Although the former leader has been protected until now by the lack of an extradition treaty between Peru and Japan, the principle of international jurisdiction could be invoked, since several of the charges against him involve crimes against humanity, explained attorney Carlos Rivera of the Legal Defense Institute, a human rights organization
"But none of this will happen without a strong leadership committed to seeking his extradition as part of the fight against corruption," Rivera commented to IPS.
As of now, the Japanese government has proven reticent to respond to the requests for Fujimori to be sent back to Peru to stand trial.
After the highly publicized episode at the Peruvian consulate in Tokyo, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Latin America desk, Katsuhiro Fujimura, reiterated to the Lima newspaper El Comercio that Fujimori is a Japanese citizen – the argument that the Japanese authorities have consistently wielded with regard to this case. The diplomat added that he had "no comment on his Peruvian citizenship."
Until May 18, Fujimori had shielded himself behind his Japanese nationality to escape facing justice in Peru, but he now appears to have changed tactics.
"His strategy is clear: he is leading people to believe that he is going to be a candidate in 2006 and is feeding the hopes of a number of groups who are interested in backing him," lawmaker Gloria Helfer of the ruling Perú Posible party, led by President Alejandro Toledo, told IPS.
"If that interest starts to wane, no one will take him into account. That is the reason behind these showy announcements," added Helfer.
According to the latest public opinion polls, Fujimori currently enjoys the support of 20 percent of Peruvian voters, despite the fact that he is legally prohibited from running in the 2006 elections, since his removal from the presidency means he is banned from holding public office for 10 years.
The chances of Fujimori handing himself over to the Peruvian justice system and returning to the political arena seem equally remote.
Nevertheless, the announcements of his return have met with a surprising response from some of the country’s political parties.
The center-right National Unity party and the social-democratic Peruvian Aprista Party have both repeatedly expressed their interest in dialogue with Fujimori’s "bases of support."
That support is especially strong among poor, marginalized sectors who have not forgotten the works undertaken by his administration, such as the building of highways, bridges, and primary health care centers.
The question, then, is whether the Peruvian political system will view Fujimori’s electoral weight as sufficient to serve as a bargaining chip for an eventual pardon.
