Fujimori's Peru: deception in the public sphere

Abstract

Alberto Fujimori ascended to the presidency of Peru in 1990, boldly promising to remake the country. Ten years later, he hastily sent his resignation from exile in Japan, leaving behind a trail of lies, deceit, and corruption. Prosecutors, judges, and congressional investigators assembled to piece together the story of Fujimori's presidency, and what they found was evidence of a vast criminal conspiracy fueled by political ambition and personal greed. In Fujimori's Peru, Catherine Conaghan tells the story of one of the most controversial presidencies in Latin American history. At a time when democracy was sweeping the Western Hemisphere, and military coups d'etat were no longer considered acceptable, the Fujimori regime managed to maintain a facade of democracy while systematically eviscerating democratic institutions and the rule of law. The rolling tanks and heavy-handed tactics of the traditional coup were replaced by legal subterfuge, intimidation, and outright bribery. The architect of this strategy was Fujimori's notorious intelligence adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, an attorney with longstanding connections to Peru's underworld, its secret service, and the CIA. Using the tools of deception, Fujimori and Montesinos managed to gain seemingly foolproof control over the political system while maintaining domestic and international support. With great skill, they created the appearance of a democratic public sphere but ensured it would not work properly. The independent press was allowed to operate, and public opinion was a constant obsession. But behind the scenes, Montesions paid off everyone who mattered - legislators, judges, bureaucrats, businessmen, executives, and entertainers. The more government officials tampered with what was supposed to be the free flow of ideas, however, the more they inadvertently exposed the ills they were trying to cover up. And that would prove to be their downfall. Merging penetrating analysis with a journalist's flair for narrative, Conaghan exposes the complex relationship between democracy and dictatorship, and shows how public institutions can both empower dictators and bring them down.