Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori, convicted of corruption and human rights violations, dies at 86

On a continent where the word populist has become commonplace in Latin America as a synonym for leftist, Alberto Fujimori, leader of Peru from 1990 to 2000 who died this Wednesday (11) at the age of 86, after treatment for tongue cancer, was a typical populist – but from the right.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just gone to meet the Lord. We ask those who admired him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul. Thank you very much, father!”, says the publication on Keiko Fujimori’s X, signed by her and her brothers.

Despite having been convicted of human rights violations and corruption, and having some unfinished cases against him for massacres carried out by death squads under his command, Fujimori is still seen and remembered by the most humble Peruvians, especially those from rural areas, as a father figure, who visited the corners of Peru where leaders of the Lima elite had never set foot.

Traveling through these regions today is to find many of those who still form his electoral support base, the same one that has been transferring its votes to his children, Keiko and Kenji Fujimori, and to the parliamentarians of Fuerza Popular, the Fujimorist party, today still the strongest in Peru.

Fujimorism managed not only to maintain the solidity of its party since the dictatorship, but also to force the fragmentation of the historic Peruvian parties. Namely, the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), a leftist and indigenous party, whose main recent leader was Alán García, and Popular Action, led by Belaunde Terry, a popular center-right party.