Alberto Fujimori, Ex-Leader of Peru Imprisoned for Rights Abuses, Dies at 86

Mr. Fujimori had repeatedly sought a presidential pardon, claiming that his health was rapidly declining in prison. On Dec. 24, 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted him a pardon on humanitarian grounds, just three days after surviving an impeachment vote with the unexpected help of Mr. Fujimori’s supporters in Congress. The pardon set off protests in the streets and was annulled within a year by Peru’s Supreme Court. Mr. Fujimori was sent back to prison on Jan. 23, 2019.

Last December, Peru’s top court ordered Mr. Fujimori to be released, defying an order by an international court that said he should remain in prison. He left prison the next day. Some experts described the decision as an example of Peru’s institutional decay.

The most divisive leader in Peru’s modern history, Mr. Fujimori eluded easy historical judgment.

“The management of the economy and his success in combating the Shining Path mark his two most important legacies,” said Julio F. Carrión, a political scientist at the University of Delaware who specializes in Latin America. “Although he managed to solve the economic and security problems, he did so in an authoritarian way.”

Paulo Drinot, a historian of Peru at University College London, said of Mr. Fujimori’s presidency: “It was a very authoritarian regime from 1992 onward, and it was also, as we now know, a highly corrupt regime, which on balance was more negative than positive for Peru. It contributed to the establishment of a political culture that is highly polarized and poorly institutionalized — and, really, a sense that the country is almost ungovernable.”

Roots in Japan

Alberto Kenya Fujimori was born in Lima on July 28, 1938, the second of five children of two Japanese immigrants, Naoichi and Mutsue (Inamoto) Fujimori. His father had come to Peru to farm cotton and was later a tailor. His parents were Buddhists, but he was raised Roman Catholic.

He received a degree from La Molina National Agrarian University in 1961 and did postgraduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Strasbourg in France.