MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Peruvian President Fujimori dies aged 86

The controversial Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations but had been released due to a pardon from Pedro Pablo Kuczynski

Former Peruvian President Alberto Kenya Fujimori died Wednesday at her daughter Keiko's home in Lima at the age of 86 after a long battle against throat cancer. He had been released from jail when the Constitutional Court upheld a pardon granted to him by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

 A wake is to take place at the National Museum and he will be buried Saturday at the Campo Fe cemetery in Huachipa.

“My father, Alberto Fujimori, passed away today with dignity, next to us, his family, and in freedom, as he deserved. His love and wisdom will always live in our hearts. I'm proud of you, I would give my life a thousand times for you; I love you, You don't know how I miss you!,” Fujimori's son and former Congressman Kenji Fujimori wrote on social media.

Nicknamed “El Chino” because of his Asian features despite being of Japanese descent, he became president after defeating writer Mario Vargas Llosa at the elections to then rule between 1990 and 2000. On April 5, 1992, he closed Congress and assumed all powers. But then called for a Convention that wrote the 1993 Constitution, which is still in force.

After divorcing his wife Susana Higuchi in 1994, his 19-year-old daughter Keiko Fujimori took up the role of First Lady. Eventually, she would fail at three attempts to be elected president. Higuchi died in December 2021 at the age of 71 of lung cancer.

Alberto Fujimori's greatest achievement was defeating the terrorist groups Sendero Luminoso and MRTA while lowering the hyperinflation developed under Alan García in his first presidency (1985-1990). However, Fujimori's administration was marred by systematic human rights violations that resulted in his convictions years later.

When his administration's strongman Vladimiro Montesinos was caught on video handing money to an opposition congressman in September 2000, Fujimori announced that he was going to call for new elections at which he would not run. Two months later, he fled to Japan, from where he turned in his resignation via fax. He remained there until 2005 when he traveled to Chile, from where he was deported in 2007 to be tried and convicted in 2009. He was then housed at the Barbadillo prison, where he crossed paths with fellow former Presidents Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo.

Kuczynski's pardon in 2017 was issued after a medical board determined that Fujimori suffered from a “progressive, degenerative and incurable disease” and that prison conditions posed a serious risk to his life. However, subsequent investigations indicated that the measure would stem from a political agreement with then-Congressman Kenji Fujimori as the sitting head of state faced imminent impeachment and ended up resigning in March 2018 amid corruption allegations.

In October 2021, Fujimori underwent a heart catheterization to relieve a blockage in an artery, and in November that year he was hospitalized again with complications from his pulmonary fibrosis, in addition to his throat cancer.

Fujimori leaves behind unsolved human rights cases. His daughter Keiko is on trial for alleged money laundering, and Kenji was sentenced to 54 months in prison for influence peddling.

Peru's Constitutional Court ordered his release despite an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAHRC) recommendation otherwise that was not legally binding.