Without serving 25 years of sentence for crimes against humanity and against what was established by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), President Dina Boluarte has risked part of her fragile political capital by giving her approval to the release of worst dictator in the history of Peru. The photograph of Alberto Fujimori, between his children Keiko and Kenji, with a mask and the oxygen bottle at his feet, went around the world in minutes and shook Peruvian society as soon as he left the Barbadillo prison in Lima.
Hours later the photo was repeated but inside the Fujimori home, between smiles and in a very different setting. Megaphone in hand, the two brothers appeared before the Press and in front of their followers to thank “the authorities who today allow my father to be home,” Keiko congratulated. The former presidential candidate also faces a trial for money laundering and a request for a sentence, made by the Prosecutor’s Office, of 30 years in prison.
As if Peru wanted to concentrate its contemporary political history in a few hours, Fujimori’s freedom coincided with the first anniversary of the coup leader Pedro Castillo, a fellow prisoner in Barbadillo, with the celebration of Boluarte’s first year in power and with the temporary suspension for six months from the attorney general, Patricia Benavides. The National Board of Justice was inexorable with those accused of creating an influence peddling network.
Benavides accused the president before Congress, at the end of November, of being responsible for homicide for 50 deaths during the protests a year ago. For Boluarte to emerge unscathed again from these accusations and maintain the parliamentary majority, he needs the support of Congress, where Fujimorism (Fuerza Popular) has 22 of the 130 deputies.
Polls confirm the worst figures in decades: Castillo’s successor barely has the support of 12% of Peruvians. His year at the head of the country has traveled between accusations and scandals, a permanent crisis that could never be translated into early elections due to the connivance of different political forces.
Fujimori’s release from prison has reopened wounds that have never been closed, which are also added to those caused during the repression after the fall of Castillo. The protests were spread across different areas of the country, especially the same Andes that rose up against Boluarte. “This democracy is no longer democracy; Dilma murders, the people repudiate you!” chanted the protesters in Huancavelica.