Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has declared three days of national mourning for the death of autocrat Alberto Fujimori. According to the decree published in the official gazette The Peruvianthe former president should be granted “the funeral honors that correspond to the president of the Republic in office.” For this reason, the Peruvian flag should fly at half-mast in public buildings, ships, military bases and diplomatic missions. For the Government, the question of whether this man who ruled with an iron fist in the nineties deserved a state funeral and a wake worthy of illustrious figures has thus been settled.
The Presidency had already lamented the death of the autocrat, convicted of serious human rights violations and released last December on humanitarian pardon. “Our heartfelt condolences to the family, whom we accompany in their profound pain. May God have him in his glory and may he rest in peace,” declared the official account. Boluarte has no room to deviate from official regulations, despite the fact that in 1992 the former president closed Congress, intervened in the judicial power and thus assumed, de facto, all the powers of the State. He needs the congressmen of Fujimorism to stay in power and to govern, even if it is precariously.
The State’s ceremonial regulations only contemplate one day of official mourning, at the time of “the burial of the mortal remains in consideration of his high office.” However, governments prior to Boluarte also declared three days for the death of other former presidents. In 2019, the Administration of Martín Vizcarra decreed three days of mourning in honor of former president Alan García, who committed suicide when he was going to be arrested for corruption.
Fujimori’s figure never ceased to hover over Peru’s political life precisely because of the brutal repression he unleashed while in power. The granting of the pardon has divided public opinion in the country for years. The former president was able to leave prison thanks to a decision by the Constitutional Court, which revalidated a pardon granted in 2017 due to his poor health. He then left the Barbadillo prison on Christmas Eve and checked into a clinic, where he remained for almost 100 days. However, he had to return to prison after the ruling was revoked. The decision by the Constitutional Court contravened an order by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and has placed the government of Dina Boluarte in a position of contempt before the inter-American justice system.
Fujimori’s supporters credit him with his economic management and the war against Shining Path. Along the way, however, abominable crimes orchestrated from the heart of the State and serious violations of human rights were perpetrated in Peru, according to the courts and multiple international organizations. His mandate was also marked by a web of structural corruption. In September 2000, his former advisor Vladimiro Montesinos, who is in prison, gave 15,000 dollars to an opposition congressman. The bribe was recorded and made public. Fujimori fled to Japan, from where he resigned from the Presidency by fax, and then went to Chile, the country that finally extradited him in 2007.
The funeral is not the only gesture Boluarte’s government has made to the former president. Last month, Congress approved the exemption from any judicial process of those who have committed crimes against humanity or war crimes before July 2002, when the Rome Statute came into force in Peru. This directly benefited Fujimori, who had already been announced by his daughter as a possible presidential candidate in 2026. The legislature also approved a life pension for Fujimori. According to the law, former constitutional presidents must receive a pension equivalent to the total income of an active congressman, but this benefit is suspended in the event of a constitutional accusation, unless the judiciary declares his innocence.
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