Posted on 03/13/2009 6:27:05 AM PDT by IbJensen
The trial of former President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, quietly nearing a conclusion in a Lima courtroom, has been a model process that shows how countries can deal with despotic leaders from a troubled past. In the course of a trial that began in December 2007, prosecutors have built a methodical case that the former president authorized two death-squad killings in the early 1990s as part of an anti-insurgency strategy that produced gross human-rights violations.
Waging a dirty war
Mr. Fujimori argues that there is no direct evidence tying him to the two incidents. He also denies knowing the existence of any death squads working for his government and says he never approved a dirty war against leftist rebels of the Shining Path insurgency. That's hard to swallow, given Mr. Fujimori's iron control of the government during his years in power and his take-no-prisoners attitude toward the Shining Path and other rebel groups. Ultimately, these matters and Mr. Fujimori's credibility are up to the court.
In a larger sense, however, the trial is about the former president's responsibility for waging what undoubtedly was a dirty war. Did the desperate situation faced by the Peruvian people under the assault of the Shining Path justify Mr. Fujimori's methods? He has argued -- and will no doubt do so again before his trial ends -- that he was forced to fight fire with fire.
Mr. Fujimori claims he had public support to wage an all-out war against the Shining Path and that the trial is just a way for the public to wipe its conscience clean now that the threat is diminished.
Don't believe it.
If Mr. Fujimori had really enjoyed public support, he would not have found it necessary to abolish Congress, destroy press freedoms and otherwise wreck what was left of Peru's democracy. His trial is a way for the people of Peru to reclaim that democracy by showing that its institutions can fairly weigh Mr. Fujimori's guilt or innocence and make him accountable for his actions.
Warning to despots
Far from turning into a hate-fest to demonize the former leader, the trial has been a quiet, almost boring, affair in which the prosecutors have meticulously connected the dots leading from the murders to the presidential palace. A poll released this week shows two-thirds of Peruvians believe it has been a fair and impartial process.
The history of Latin America is replete with leaders who abused their powers and managed to escape justice. Some (Baby Doc) fled into a golden exile. Others, like Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile, spent their last years evading the trial they justly merited. Not Alberto Fujimori. His trial should serve as a warning to other despots that the culture of impunity is a thing of the past.
IF FUJIMORI WOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN ACTION TO LACERATE THE VESTIGE OF A MARXIST-MAOIST ORGANIZATION, BENT ON BRINGING DOWN PERU TO ITS KNEES AND IMPOSE A CAMBODIA STYLE KHEMER ROUGE GOVERNMENT IN PERU, THE RESULTS WOULD OF BEEN DISASTEROUS.
Under the circumstances, Fujimori acted as a patriot.
He saved the country from the Shining Path.
For that he must be punished.
The trial is just a show-trial being put on by the radical left, now that they are back in control in Latin America. This is revenge for Fujimori’s victory over the Shining Path.
There are several trials being prepared in different, now-Marxist Latin American countries for their former non-Marxist leaders. Here in the US, I think Bambi, if he can get away with it, will eventually suggest trying Bush. Once the left gets control, they want to take revenge and wipe out all their former opponents.
Fujimori is a hero.
Yeah, Miami Hearld, I'll believe that when Fidel Castro or Daniel Ortega goes on trial.
You sleezebags need to get over people like Pinochet and Fujimori who didn't play by Robert's Rules of Order to defeat the Communist regimes who were threatening to destroy their respective nations.
Anyway you slice it, the relative handful of people killed in the so-called dirty wars waged by Pinochet and Fujimori paled in comparison to the tens of thousands killed by Communist thugs like Castro, Ortega, Che and the Shining Path.
Amen.
I wonder who our hero will be?
Chuck Norris?
Well said.
I worked in Peru for 2 1/2 years during the late 90’s and was landing at the airport in Lima when the military stormed the Japanese embassy and liberated the hostages...Fujimori was a hero then and indeed did save the nation. If not for him, Peru would be just another crap hole and would have had to endure what Colombia is trying to escape.
I also lived in Chile for 5-years and contrary to what we hear from our fair and unbiased press, Augusto Pinochet remains popular in Chile. People forget that he was nearly re elected when he set up free elections in Chile...he lost something like 53-47...hardly a mandate for “change”.
So,,, Fujimori *basically* did everything Fidel and Hugo have done? Gosh, it doesnt make sense that he gets in trouble,,, while they ,,,, oh, nevermind.
Yes, you are absolutely correct.
If the Miami Herald really enjoyed public support, they wouldn't be going out of business.
The trial is just a show-trial being put on by the radical left, now that they are back in control in Latin America. This is revenge for Fujimori’s victory over the Shining Path.You really don't want to be endorsing death squads, no matter how bad the opponent. That's the kind of thinking that little Billie Ayers and his ilk revel in.There are several trials being prepared in different, now-Marxist Latin American countries for their former non-Marxist leaders. Here in the US, I think Bambi, if he can get away with it, will eventually suggest trying Bush. Once the left gets control, they want to take revenge and wipe out all their former opponents.
Ditto for Pinochet. A good friend of mine was married to a Chilean national. She compared the 5% or so vote for change to the English electorate's tossing out Winston Churchill within weeks of the surrender of Germany-- not that they were ungrateful, but just that they thought with the danger past they could accomodate someone more leftist policies as a sop to them. Zer0 would be wise to see his similar margin in the same light rather than as a mandate for an extreme leftist shift. But his owners will not allow it.
Fujimori, Franco, and Pinochet are heroes. Peru recently, and Chile in the past, are models of economic freedom as opposed to becoming killing fields. Spain also would have prospered, but Franco faced a boycott because he had no choice but to turn to Hitler for help. I can’t imagine what post WWII Europe would have looked like if Spain was Stalin’s puppet. A staggering what if? scenario.
>>Fujimori, Franco, and Pinochet are heroes.
Agreed! And for saving their countries from becoming a workers’ paradise like Cuba or North Korea they are vilified in perpetuum by the left.
Nobody’s endorsing death squads; some of these guerrilla groups were wiped out quite legitimately by government agents and some probably were wiped out by free-lancers who were tired of being intimidated and having their society destroyed by the Shining Path terrorists. But Fujimori didn’t coordinate the latter and, in any case, why would you believe anything the radical left says?
I remember once reading an article about one of the mothers of leftwingers who died in some Latin American country complaining about the fact that her daughter had been snatched off the street. Of course, way down in the article, she mentioned that her daughter was part of a radical left wing group and had just been at a meeting where they were planning an attack...
When the wifey and I moved to Santiago, we scurried around looking for a house to rent and ended up in an upscale neighborhood called Lo Barnechea; after getting settled I noticed there was always a pretty well-built young man walking around the cul-de-sac in front of our house...and my guess was he was packing heat. Turned out the end of the cul-de-sac was the back of Pinochet’s Santiago compound and the kids were secret service-types. Needless to say, our neighborhood was the safest in Chile...or probably all of S.A.
You are correct...people don’t realize that one of the methods Fujimori used to settle the campo was to arm the villagers. This was called the Rondero program - Ronderos are locally-organised civil defence forces that exist in many outlying villages in Peru and in some suburbs of metropolitan Lima.
What happened in Peru was that the idiot Shining Path, (sendero luminoso) degenterated from a Marxist political force to just another gang of thugs and drug smugglers and their armed insurgency turned into a score-settling movement where property owners and village leaders were routinely murdered. Arming, and training, the villagers took away the advantage of the shining path jerks.
Peruvians are wonderful people and in spite of its many problems, my favorite country in S.A.
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