Peru Engulfed by the Tsunami

When the presidential campaign started nine months ago, few people in Lima had ever heard of him. Yet as the votes were counted last week after the first round of balloting, Alberto Fujimori, 51, an agronomist of Japanese descent, was less than 3% behind Mario Vargas Llosa, 54, one of Latin America's most popular novelists and among Peru's most famous citizens. Because he is likely to win support from other opposition parties, Fujimori is expected to prevail in a runoff to be held in late May or early June.

Dubbed "the Japanese Tsunami," Fujimori surprised Peru's longtime favorite son by appealing to the country's desperate poor in a door-to-door campaign through shantytowns and farm villages. Although a native of Peru, Fujimori benefited from Japan's reputation as the new economic superpower. On a political talk show he mentioned Vargas Llosa's claim that "he can get $1 billion from the Japanese," then added with a grin, "I ask myself, Why aren't they going to give it to Alberto Fujimori?"

Fujimori is descended on his mother's side from a noble warrior, but his family, like most of Peru's 80,000 Japanese immigrants, first lived in a dirt- floored adobe hovel after arriving from southern Japan in 1934. The second of five children, Alberto worked hard, went to college and eventually became rector of Lima's La Molina National University of Agriculture.

Fujimori's first exposure to national politics came in 1985 when Alan Garcia Perez, then candidate for President, asked him for advice on rural matters. After the election, Fujimori became host of a state television talk show that had a wide audience in the countryside. This may help explain the unexpected following that Fujimori found outside Lima. In addition, he won the support of evangelicals. Although a Roman Catholic, like 94% of Peruvians, he enlisted evangelicals after founding his Cambio 90 (Change 90) party in October.

Like Vargas Llosa, Cambio's leader advocates generally conservative policies. To stop the hyperinflation that now races ahead at nearly 3,000% annually, he favors a return to free markets. But unlike Vargas Llosa, he does not want to privatize all of Peru's 138 state-run enterprises. In the U.S.-based war on drugs, Fujimori would not eradicate Peru's vast coca-growing areas with herbicides, but would train farmers to plant replacement crops such as achiote and coffee. He also told TIME, "I'm not going to dialogue with the Sendero," the Shining Path guerrillas who roam freely in at least one-third of the country. But he added, "It's completely illusory to think that you can solve the problem with arms."

As any political candidate who comes out of nowhere, the Japanese Tsunami could fade just as fast as he rose. But for now his fresh face and promises of greater social justice seem to be just what Peruvian voters are looking for.