Game Over for Peru's Fujimori

The former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (C) leaving the Chilean Supreme Court in Santiago, Chile.

Mesina / EPA

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Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori is out of luck. After seven years living abroad in Japan and Chile he will soon be heading home to stand trial on charges of corruption and human rights violations. Chile's Supreme Court announced on Friday that a five-judge panel had accepted Peru's request to extradite Fujimori, 69, on two counts of murder and five counts of corruption. Peru had filed 12 extradition petitions in January 2006.

Fujimori's return and impending trial are the latest chapter in an extraordinary saga that began 17 years ago and continues to have a profound impact on Peruvian society. Supporters and detractors are already lining up to demand judicial transparency and speedy court proceedings. The corruption charges carry maximum sentences of four years, while the two human rights cases could keep him behind bars for up to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty.

He is accused of actively supporting the actions of a paramilitary team within the Army — the Colina Group — responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Peruvians during the war against two subversive groups, the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Nearly 70,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during the internal conflict between 1980 and 2000. The specific cases cited involve the assassinations of 10 people at La Cantuta University in 1992 and the 15 people at a party in Barrios Altos, in downtown Lima, two years prior to that. Colina members have testified in separate cases that Fujimori approved of their actions and promoted them for their work. "My family only wants justice. We have waited for many years for Fujimori and his cohorts to answer for what they did" said Carmen Amaru, whose brother Armando was killed at La Cantuta.

However, the former president's supporters say justice is the exact opposite of what Fujimori can expect from Peru's courts. "I do not think that he will be treated fairly," said Martha Chavez, a congressional leader throughout the 1990s and presidential candidate for a pro-Fujimori political coalition in the 2006 elections. "Everyone wants to extract some political benefit from this." In a telephone interview with Peru's RPP radio station on Friday, Fujimori said that he was not surprised by the decision and that it would give him an opportunity to re-connect with Peruvians after nearly seven years living abroad, first in Japan and then in Santiago, Chile since October 2005.

Fujimori first appeared on Peru's radar screen in 1990, when he came from nowhere to win the presidency. Campaigning in a traditional Andean hat and playing up his Japanese ancestry created an impression of honesty and hard work that would last throughout most of his 10-year presidency, despite some shocking — critics say illegal — moves. Although he had no political experience and no party, he cobbled together a government in the early 1990s that ended Peru's near-fatal economic collapse and dealt fatal blows to the two violent rebellions.

In 1992, Fujimori shut down Congress and the Judiciary; his supporters then wrote a new constitution tailored to his wishes that let him run for immediate re-election in 1995. His crushed his nearest opponent by a more than two-to-one margin. However, he would run one time too many and though re-elected in 2000, charges of electoral fraud, along with allegations of corruption by his right-hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos, led to his downfall. Later investigations would reveal that Montesinos, Peru's de facto National Security Adviser throughout the 10-year regime, embezzled close to $1 billion. He is now in jail, serving time on 26 convictions and awaiting trial in more than 40 other cases.

Amid the political chaos in Peru, Fujimori took advantage of an Asia Pacific summit in November 2000 to stop off in Japan, his parents' homeland, and resigned from the presidency by fax. Congress rejected the resignation and impeached him on grounds that he was morally unfit to govern. He would stay in Japan until October 2005, when he secretly flew to Chile with the goal of returning to Peru. He was arrested instead.

Opponents in Peru say Fujimori's desire to return to his country evaporated in June, when Chile's Supreme Court prosecutor backed the extradition petitions. A lower court judge would rule the other way a month later, but in the meantime Fujimori pulled another bizarre move, announcing a long-distance campaign for the Japanese Senate. He said his political future lay in Japan. Voters there disagreed. He lost. "The Senate race in Japan was an attempt to disrupt the extradition and try to guarantee further impunity," said Gloria Cano, a human rights lawyer. "His response to the court's decision reflects the cynicism with which he has always governed."

Fujimori's once-magical touch with Peruvians also seems to have worn off. In a recent nationwide poll more than 70% said he had no political future and 75% favored his extradition from Chile. International human rights groups say the Chilean court's ruling not only benefits Peru and Chile, but sets an international precedent. "I think this decision has resonance for the rest of Latin America and even the world," John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office Latin America, told TIME in a telephone interview. "It is a huge advance when a head of state who has eluded justice for such serious crimes for so long is returned to his country through regular processes to face justice,"