Peruvian government announces mourning period for Fujimori’s death | Political news

Fujimori’s legacy remains fiercely contested in Peru, where he has been convicted of corruption and serious human rights abuses.

The Peruvian government has declared a three-day period of national mourning following the death of controversial former president Alberto Fujimori.

President Dina Boluarte signed a decree on Thursday for a period of mourning, a day after Fujimori, convicted of corruption and human rights abuses while in office, died at the home of his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, in the capital Lima.

“This morning the national flag was lowered to half-mast at the Legislative Palace due to the death of former president of the republic, Alberto Fujimori,” Diario Oficial El Peruano, Peru’s official newspaper, reported on Thursday.

Fujimori’s body will lie in state at the Culture Ministry in Lima until Saturday, when it will be moved to a cemetery south of the capital. Peru 21 posted photos on social media showing supporters lining up outside the Culture Ministry to pay their respects.

Shining Path Rebels

Both in life and in death, Fujimori divided the Andean nation of Peru, where his supporters credit him with overhauling the economy through a series of brutal neoliberal reforms and crushing the Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, that had terrorized the country for years.

He did so through a brutal counterrevolutionary campaign that included widespread rights abuses and contributed to Fujimori’s growing authoritarianism, including a 1992 “self-coup” that closed Congress and the judiciary. His economic reforms have also been criticized for their severe impact on the country’s poor.

Peru’s civil war between the government and various rebel groups is estimated to have claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people.

Fujimori’s government has also committed abuses such as a campaign of forced sterilizations targeting women from poor and largely indigenous regions of the country.

The Montesinos Scandal

Fujimori fled to Japan after being removed from office in 2000 in a corruption scandal involving his infamous intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

Fujimori was eventually detained in Chile during a visit there in 2005 and extradited to Peru in September 2007 on charges of involvement in ordering killings and kidnappings while he was the country’s leader.

He was tried and convicted in 2009 of crimes relating to the murders of 25 people by death squads that deliberately targeted leftist militants, activists and civilians.

Fujimori was released from prison in December 2023 by a Peruvian court, contrary to a decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

On social media, hashtags from #FujimoriNuncaMas (Fujimori never again) to #FujimoriPorSiempre (Fujimori forever) have highlighted the divisions that still exist in Peruvian society more than two decades after he fled the country and faxed his resignation from Japan.

Critics jokingly noted that Fujimori died on the same day as Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman, who died in prison in 2021. His capture by state security forces in 1992 was a major victory in the government’s efforts to dismantle the feared group.

Fujimori’s daughter Keiko, a former lawmaker and presidential candidate, said in July that her father would run for president in 2026, even though he would be in his 80s by then.