Alberto Ken'ya Fujimori (アルベルト・ケンヤ・フジモリ Aruberuto Ken'ya Fujimori, born in Peru on July 28, 1938), also known as Kenya Fujimori (藤森 謙也 Fujimori Ken'ya), was President of Peru from July 28, 1990 to November 17, 2000.

Fujimori was credited with restoring macroeconomic stability to Peru after the tumultuous presidency of Alan García and bringing peace to the nation after many years of domestic turmoil, but he was widely criticised for his authoritarian leadership style, particularly after the auto-coup of 1992.

In late 2000, in the face of mounting scandal and growing instability, he left Peru to attend an APEC summit in Brunei and then continued on to Japan, from where he resigned. His resignation was initially transmitted by fax machine and later officially via the Peruvian Embassy in Tokyo.

In October 2005, he stated he would run in Peru's April 2006 presidential election, despite a ten year congressional ban barring him from public office.

His daughter and former First Lady Keiko Sofía officially registered him before the Peruvian National Electoral Jury on 6 January 2006, but was officially disqualified on 10 January.

After travelling to Chile, he was detained by Chilean authorities on November 7, 2005. The Peruvian government formally requested his extradition on the 3 January 2006.

Early years

Alberto Fujimori was born in Lima to Naoichi Fujimori and Mutsue Fujimori, natives of Kumamoto, Japan who moved to Peru in 1934. His parents applied to the Japanese consulate to keep the baby's Japanese citizenship.

Alberto Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Merced, La Rectora, and graduated high school from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima. He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer.

There he also lectured in mathematics the following year. In 1964 he went on to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.

In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989.

In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1987 to 1989. It was aired by Peru's state-owned network Channel 7 (Peruvian National Television).

A dark horse candidate, Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election with his new party Cambio 90 ("cambio" meaning "change"), beating the world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with previous president Alan García and his American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party.

He also exploited the distrust of Mario Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about Vargas Llosa's campaign promises for neoliberal economic reform.

During the campaign, he was affectionately nicknamed el chino (the Chinaman). Most observers believe his Japanese descent benefitted Fujimori, as much of the population of the country is of indigenous descent, and his ethnicity helped set him apart from the Spanish-dominated political elites.

President of the Republic (1990–1995)

Economic hardship

During his first term in office, Fujimori's economic strategy, which Peruvians dubbed the Fujishock, bore no resemblance to the vague, populist program set out during the campaign under the slogan: "Work, technology, honesty". Under the close tutelage of the International Monetary Fund, Fujimori embarked upon tough and wide-ranging economic reforms – far more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed – resulting in Peru's re-entry to the global economy, from which it had become estranged during the García administration.

Spurred on by the IMF, Fujimori started an extensive process of privatization, selling off hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and generated a brief economic upturn in the mid 1990s. His administration made sweeping changes to national laws to encourage foreign investment in extractive oil, gas and mining sectors. To be more friendly to foreign investors, the legislation gave new powers to “the competent sectoral authority,” or agencies that oversee mining and oil projects, to determine on a case-by-case basis emissions limits, toxic waste disposal procedures and other concerns, which had previously been set by specific guidelines under environmental law. It also lifted prohibitions on developing energy and other projects that exploit non-renewable resources in protected areas, such as national parks, in the Andean highlands and the Amazon region. 

1992 "auto-coup"

Main article: Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992

During Fujimori's first term in office, the APRA and FREDEMO parties remained in control of both chambers of Congress (the Chamber of Deputies and Senate), thus hampering his ability to get the legislation he wanted onto the statute books.

In response to this, Fujimori mounted an auto-coup or self-coup (in Spanish: autogolpe; called Fuji-coup, or fujigolpe in Peru) — that is, a coup d'état against his own government, on April 5, 1992.

The intent was to restructure the organs of the Peruvian government and constitutiton in such a way as to increase the president's power and control. The phrase "auto-coup" was in itself controversial, as Fujimori and his supporters maintained the acts were merely a "restructuring" of the government in the interests of efficiency, and not something more radical or authoritarian.

There was little initial domestic resistance to the auto-coup, in fact it was welcomed. An opinion poll carried out shortly thereafter indicated that Fujimori's decision to dissolve Congress and restructure the judicial system had a 73% approval rating.

Local reaction

Fujimori himself claimed that the auto-coup was necessary to break with the deeply-entrenched interests which were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it [5]. The economic and political situation were also important factors. At the time, Fujimori's economic reforms (named the "Fujishock") were widely considered successful.

Critics suggest Fujimori could not have implemented his drastic liberal economic reforms under and with the co-operation of the dissolved parliament. And, since Fujimori as president would ultimately be held responsible for the success or failure of his government and considering the opposition he was facing, in hindsight his daring reforms may have made sense.

International reactions

However, international reactions to the auto-coup were different:

• International financial organisations delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States government suspended all aid to Peru other than humanitarian assistance, as did Germany and Spain.

• Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador.

• Chile joined Argentina in requesting that Peru be suspended from the Organization of American States.

• The Organization of American States and the U.S. agreed that Fujimori's coup may have been extreme, but they did not want to see Peru return to the deteriorating state that it had been in before.

The coup appeared to threaten the economic recovery strategy of reinsertion, and complicated the process of clearing arrears with the IMF.

The United States and the coup

Even before the coup, relations with the United States had been strained because of Fujimori's reluctance to sign an accord that would increase U.S. and Peruvian military efforts in eradicating coca fields. Although Fujimori eventually signed the accord in May 1991, in order to get desperately needed aid, the disagreements did little to enhance bilateral relations.

Peruvians saw drugs as primarily a U.S. problem and the least of their concerns, given the economic crisis, the war against Shining Path and MRTA insurgents, and an outbreak of cholera, which further isolated Peru because of a resulting ban on food imports.

However, two weeks after the auto-coup, the George H.W. Bush administration changed their position and officially recognised Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru. On March 12, 1992, Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs Bernard Aronson told the US Congress:

The international community and respected human rights organizations must focus the spotlight of world attention on the threat which Shining Path poses... Latin America has seen violence and terror, but none like this. Make no mistake; if Shining Path were to take power, we would see genocide.

Given Washington's concerns, long-term repercussions of the auto-coup turned out to be modest.