Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, a polarizing determine within the nation’s politics, died on the age of 86 within the capital Lima, his household confirmed.
“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,” his youngsters Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori wrote on the social media platform X.
“We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul,” they wrote, including: “Thank you for so much, Dad!”
Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was launched from jail on humanitarian grounds in December, two-thirds of the best way via a 25-year sentence for crimes in opposition to humanity throughout his rule.
Sources near his household informed AFP earlier Wednesday that his well being had deteriorated quickly after finishing therapy for tongue most cancers in August.
He was final seen in public Thursday as he was leaving a clinic within the Miraflores district of Lima, the place he stated he had undergone a CT scan.
The news of his loss of life unfold rapidly on social media, the place his supporters and detractors quarreled over his legacy.
Just a month earlier his daughter Keiko had introduced that the rightwinger would run for president once more in 2026.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen expressed his condolences to the Fujimori household. “We want his children and relatives to know we feel sorrow,” he stated.
Adrianzen stated he would discuss to the household about what sort of funeral they need. It was not clear whether or not Fujimori would obtain a state funeral.
Fujimori, who was of Japanese heritage, was despatched to jail in 2009 over massacres dedicated by military loss of life squads in 1991 and 1992 during which 25 individuals, together with a toddler, had been killed in what he introduced as anti-terrorist operations.
In December 2017, then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori because of his in poor health well being.
But the Supreme Court later annulled the pardon and in January 2019, he was returned to jail from hospital.
Hostage disaster
He was launched once more in December 2023 after a courtroom reinstated his pardon.
He was adored and reviled in equal measures in Peru.
His supporters credited him with saving the nation from left-wing Shining Path and Tupac Amaru guerrillas and shoring up the financial system.
His opponents noticed him as a power-thirsty autocrat.
One of essentially the most dramatic episodes of his presidency was a four-month hostage ordeal on the Japanese embassy in Lima in late 1996-early 1997.
The standoff ended with Fujimori sending in commandos who rescued all 72 hostages and killed 14 rebels.
But the later Fujimori years had been dominated by a bribery scandal involving his intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos.
Fujimori went into self-imposed exile in Japan and memorably faxed in his resignation however was arrested years later in Chile and despatched again to Peru for trial.
His daughter Keiko has made three failed bids for the presidency.
Source: www.dailysabah.com