Peru Files Murder Charges Against Fujimori
September 7, 2001 10:47 AM   Subscribe

Peru Files Murder Charges Against Fujimori I always thought it was interesting how a Japanese-born national became the PM of Peru. Is there a major Japanese population in Peru? Otherwise, Mr. Fujimori can be just another Third World Dictator who Committed Hainous Crimes, and now in exile.
posted by Rastafari (17 comments total)
 
Calderon had already drawn up charges against Fujimori for what she called the ``horrendous'' 1991 massacre, among the worst incidents in a 10-year rule that gave the Andean country one of Latin America's worst rights records.

What I don't understand is, if you're a dictator, why-o-why MUST you KILL people? Just rob the freakin' treasury for all it's worth then, before you get overthrown, go into exile! How difficult is that? Why the killing?

I'll never understand these dictators.
posted by Rastafari at 10:53 AM on September 7, 2001


then why even venture rasti, why?. i hope to have a serious discussion( i was gonna make a crack about the site that protect journalists, with its body count counter ((11 dead so far, oh no)) I HATE THE PRESS as a whole so im bias. none the less, these monsters (fuji is really just a small time when killing is concerned.) these monsters justify the behavior and actions to people in the "know" to "save" there lives. For example " the students will rally, they will march, the people(who are basically uninformed pheasants who know squat about the world) the people will rally and kill all us rich in our beds." The rich have vowed to not be taken over by some little cell of rubberband warriors that would disrupt the countries fiances for some horseshit about "human rights"....they dont care rasti, they never will. I would venture that the competition is just as ruthless and ...well that sounds like a defense and justification for fuji and his band of minor underworld, penny ante thuggery. they kill so others wont rob the treasury, they dont want some liberal spending the cash on dollar stores and over priced medicine and crap food. Exile is death to most of these evil cusses, they just dont have the courage to blow their brains out. The only way to deal with an amin or fuji is threaten his ass or whack him. (in the old days one could hope for the pronunciamiento- a gentlemans coup, but...)
posted by clavdivs at 8:59 AM on September 8, 2001


Yes, Peru has a Japanese population, albeit not large. In 1990:
The ethnic composition of the population is estimated as: indian 45-47 percent, mestizos 32-37 percent, unmixed Europeans 12-15 percent, blacks and mulattos 2 percent, and Asian (Japanese and Chinese) about 1 percent.
posted by stevis at 10:06 AM on September 8, 2001


As a sidenote, there is the issue of Peru's foreign debt. If the money was squandered by some corrupt politician who was acting as a dictator, why should the people of Peru be stuck with the debt?

This is part of the reason people say 'eliminate the third world debt', because most of it is accumulated by corrupt politicians who live in mansions and have swiss bank accounts.
posted by bobo123 at 10:28 AM on September 8, 2001


Fujimori was born in Peru.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:38 AM on September 8, 2001


did i say pheasants?
posted by clavdivs at 11:03 AM on September 8, 2001


Lots of Japanese headed for Latin America in the lean years after WWII. Some interesting cultural mixing resulted, and some of it made its way back to Japan. There are tiny salsa bars in Tokyo that are packed with South Americans, Japanese and every genetic combination thereof.
posted by davidfg at 11:47 AM on September 8, 2001


Fujimori was born in Peru.

I stand corrected. Even though Fujimori was born in Peru, Japan still gave him exile (I wonder if he the first foreign leader Japan ever gave exile to?).

Also, stevis, the stats that you quoted re: Indians 45-47 percent of the population, you mean Indians as in Native Peruvians, not Indians from India, right? Just checking, because there is a large population of Indians (from India) in the South American country of Senegal, so I just wondered.
posted by Rastafari at 12:25 PM on September 8, 2001


...Senegal is in Africa... (ahem)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:32 PM on September 8, 2001


Rastafari:

People become dictators in order to kill people. It's not like tricked into doing it or something.
posted by electro at 12:58 PM on September 8, 2001


I believe Rastafari means Suriname... A good part of that country's population (over 1/3rd according to CIA World Factbook are descendants from Hindustani immigants of the 19th century.

And yes, Peru's indians in this case are Native Americans of the Quechua and other smaller groups.
posted by Iosephus at 12:58 PM on September 8, 2001


Thanks Isoephus. That is what I meant. Not Senegal. (stand corrected again...)
posted by Rastafari at 2:39 PM on September 8, 2001


Yet another South American dictator backed by the US goes down. How soon until we see Kissinger in cuffs? But what I love is that the Peruvians call him el Chino (The Chinaman) for some strange reason.
posted by euphorb at 3:17 PM on September 8, 2001


I've found in latin america that people of different ethnic backgrounds are often referred to by what Americans would consider to be racial slurs; but in an endearing manner, and without malice. Asians are called chino or chinito (little chinaman), African American are called negrito (little blackie), etc.
posted by RavenX at 10:51 PM on September 8, 2001


Fujimori was highly regarded during his first two terms of office. But typical of politics in Latin America, the populace is fickle.

History is written by winners and Fujimori has ceased to be that. The history of the Peru he's built over 10 years will be revised.
Fujimori was born in Peru of Japanese parents -- which entitles him to dual citizenship -- although the Japanese law allows for the privilege to be revoked in some circumstances

posted by RavenX at 10:52 PM on September 8, 2001


I always liked Fujimori. He has much more to deal with than people tend to remember - border conflicts, the smae kind of rebel movements that have debilitated Columbia and Brazil, a shattered economy..

Unless you have complete groundswell support, as well as the support of the intellectual elite, you can't deal with these kinds of problems because you're too busy fighting off some yahoo who thinks they can do it better and decides to fight against you instead of working toward the better good.

So, yes, I think the heavy-handedness he had was heavy, but not so overpowering that he was a dictator. He did what was necessary or else Peru would probably still be a mess, the jungles still in the hands of drug dealers and rebels, and the government would be an ineffective patchwork of crumbling alliances.
posted by rich at 6:45 AM on September 10, 2001


Peruvian culture also seems to have something of a facination with the Japanese. A lot of soap operas (telenovelas) there have a stock Japanese characters (often wearing a rising sun headband). At least that was the case in the early 90s when Fujimori took office.

My favorite Fujimori stories:

1. During the cholera epidemic, the fish industry started going into the toilet out of contamination fears. So Fujimori tried to restore public confidence by going on TV with his cabinet and eating a dinner of ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon juice so the acid sort of cooks it).

The next day, half his cabinet was sick in bed with cholera.

2. Fujimori's wife went public at one point accusing him of tolerating corruption in the government. Divorce in such a heavily Roman Catholic country was out of the question. So Fujimori announces that, though she is still his wife, he is firing her from the position of "First Lady," producing the same sort of confused head shaking that would occur if Bush announced such a thing ("There's no such position as First Lady--it's just what they call the President's wife!")

At one point she had barricaded herself off in one wing of the presidential house (or she was locked away) and Fujimori cut off the power and water to that wing until she got a cell phone and called a radio station and complained on the air.

On the other hand, the economy sure turned around on Fujimori's watch (not sure how much he can take credit for). Before he took office, inflation was 50% per month! Imagine every month, half of your money just disappearing. I changed $100 into Bolivars and a month later it was worth $50.
posted by straight at 9:32 AM on September 10, 2001


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