Former Peruvian president Fujimori dies, aged 86

Strongman leader jailed for human rights abuses had long battle with cancer’

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Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who had steered economic growth during the 1990s but was later jailed for human rights abuses stemming from a bloody war against Maoist rebels, died on Sept 11. He was 86.

Close colleagues had visited him earlier in the day, reporting that he was in critical condition.

"After a long battle with cancer, our father... has just departed to meet the Lord," his daughter Keiko Fujimori wrote in a message on X, also signed by the former leader's other children.

Mr Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was the little-known chancellor of a farming university when elected to office in 1990.

He quickly established himself as a cunning politician whose hands-on style produced results even as he angered critics for concentrating power.

He slayed the hyperinflation that threw millions of Peruvians out of work, privatised dozens of state-run companies and slashed trade tariffs, setting the foundations for Peru to become, for a while, one of Latin America's most stable economies.

Under his watch, the feared leader of the Maoist Shining Path, Abimael Guzman, was captured dealing a crucial blow to a movement that in the 1980s seemed close to toppling the Peruvian state. Guzman died in prison in September 2021.

But many Peruvians saw Mr Fujimori as an autocrat after he used military tanks to shut down Congress in 1992, redrafting the Constitution to his liking to push free market reforms and tough antiterrorism laws.

A slew of corruption scandals during his 10-year administration also turned public opinion against him.