Few newspapers in the U.S. covered in depth the passing of Alberto Fujimori — President of Peru from 1990-2000 — on Sept. 11. The story got buried beneath an avalanche of headlines: a presidential debate followed by Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, the commemoration of the tragic events at the World Trade Center, another assassination scare, and a devastating hurricane. Yet, Americans need to know about Fujimori and his career, because they help explain why the U.S. is suffering from a polarized and populist moment today and what the consequences might be.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Fujimori helped trailblaze the right-wing populist playbook that Donald Trump now uses. The former Peruvian president exemplified a mortal threat to democratic regimes: an elected leader who undermined the very democratic process that brought him to office. He used extreme tactics to remain in power, including lying, cheating, and even violence. Democracies aren’t felled by one blow. Rather, they tend to die slow deaths at the hands of leaders like this.
Peru faced multiple crises in the later 1980s and Fujimori ran at a particularly auspicious moment. Both the center-right and center-left had governed Peru during the 1980s, and neither had much to show in the way of societal gains as far as voters were concerned. Unprecedented rates of hyperinflation and a civil war with a gruesome Maoist terrorist group, the Shining Path, meant that the average Peruvian was ready for new figures to emerge to confront these threats.
And Fujimori fit the bill perfectly. When the unknown university administrator declared his candidacy in 1989, he epitomized the political “outsider.” Peru’s two-round presidential race enabled Fujimori to join a crowded field of candidates, and his outsider status helped him to take advantage of the disillusionment with both the center left and center right. He squeaked through the first round of voting, coming in second to Mario Vargas Llosa, a well-known, conservative literary figure.
Read More: Alberto Fujimori, Ex-President of Peru Who Was Jailed for Human Rights Violations, Dies at 86
In the second round of the election, Fujimori capitalized on identity politics as well as the support he drew from both the center and left, who balked at the business-friendly, free-market policy proposals of candidates like Vargas Llosa. In contrast, Fujimori adopted a decidedly populist campaign slogan, “A President Like You.” He traveled the country donning Andean ponchos, promising Peruvians that he would fight for the “common man.” Fujimori countered his rival’s economically neoliberal policies, by promising to spare the country from the economic pain that they were sure to bring.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori also used racial stereotypes and phenotypes to convince Peruvians (many of whom are of Indigenous descent) that he was more like them than the predominantly white Peruvian elites. His secondary campaign slogan, “technology, honesty, and hard work,” played on stereotypes about the Japanese population in Peru as hardworking and honest.
With these populist tactics, Fujimori’s unlikely candidacy succeeded, and a man with almost no political experience assumed the presidency in 1990.
Rather than being the savior he promised, however, Fujimori instead often deceived the people he purported to represent.
During the campaign he had sworn that he would not implement free-market policies. Yet, within months of assuming power, he implemented what is now called the “Fuji-Shock,” a set of executive actions that privatized the telecommunications industry and eliminated state subsidies, among other immediate reforms. Prices and unemployment levels rose almost overnight.
Additionally, in an attempt to control the population in the Peruvian highlands, Fujimori greenlit a forced sterilization program. The consequences were devastating for Andean campesinos of Indigenous descent, who had been a strong base of support for the new president. The program left more than 250,000 Andean women infertile. No longer could these women have children “like him.”
Fujimori skillfully deployed the tried and true populist tactic of positioning himself as the one leader of the people. In the process, he denigrated political institutions and directed resources toward followers he needed to maintain support. This empowered him to further weaken traditional political parties — which served as the last bulwark against his ever-growing consolidation of power.
Once he had diminished the parties, Fujimori manipulated Peruvians’ fears about safety for his own gain. In 1992, he cited the Shining Path’s gaining strength as justification for ordering Congress — which he accused of obstructionism — to shut down. He then sent the military to prevent legislators from convening. This unprecedented move was dubbed an “auto-golpe,” or a self-coup.
While Fujimori claimed this drastic move was made in the best interests of national security, in reality it also allowed him to purge the legislature of the political opposition. Opposition parties had previously dominated the body and rejected some of his proposed plans to restructure the economy. In the new elections called after the auto-golpe, Fujimori’s party and their allies gained control of the legislature. Shortly after, he created a 13-member constitutional committee to draft a new constitution giving the president and military more power than before. It passed by a slim margin in a 1993 referendum.
The threat of Shining Path also enabled Fujimori’s most significant breach of civil liberties. He empowered his advisors to create a death squad to eradicate potential terrorists — ending in multiple innocent civilian deaths.
Read More: Peru’s Opposition Leader Has Been Detained in Connection with a Campaign Finance Probe
During his time in power, Fujimori packed the courts, manipulated electoral results, and continued to deploy populist rhetoric to elevate himself in the eyes of the public. He won a second term handily in 1995, then positioned himself for a third, even though Peru had a two-term limit. He argued that his first term, under the previous constitution, did not count, and his “fujimorista” Supreme Court justices agreed.
Fujimori’s time in power ended with multiple scandals. After videos leaked of one of his advisors paying off legislators and judges, he fled to Japan in 2000, and remained in exile. When he tried to reenter Peruvian politics in 2005, he was extradited and tried for multiple crimes. In 2009, Fujimori eventually landed in jail for the human rights abuses that occurred during his time in power, before being released on humanitarian conditions in 2017.
Despite Fujimori eventually facing consequences for some of his actions, his regime changed Peru forever. Since his time in office, Peruvians are still called terrorists if they identify as leftists and the courts remain weak and inefficient. The party system that existed before Fujimori’s tenure in office never gained back its former strength, and parties are now merely personal vehicles for candidates to run for office.
Fujimori’s family continues his legacy. His daughter and political heir has used his populist strategies to maintain support for her own political strength and for the party her father started. Extreme gridlock between the executive and legislative bodies exists and continuous impeachment processes have destabilized the nation. Peru is now considered one of the most unstable democracies in the Western Hemisphere. The political situation is not all attributable to one man, but Fujimori’s fingerprints are on many of these changes.
Fujimori’s time in politics serves as a cautionary tale to Americans during this election cycle. Like Fujimori, Trump is an outsider and a populist who campaigns on messages of “us” vs. “them.” He, too, makes myriad promises without keeping them. Like Fujimori, Trump is empowering his family to continue his legacy, and he openly disregards democratic institutions. Both men have tried to ignore or evade multiple legal challenges. The term “auto-golpe,” which originated in Fujimori’s shuttering of the Peruvian legislature, was even deployed to describe the situation in the U.S. after the 2020 election.
Stephanie McNulty is a government professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and Sarah Chartock is a political science professor at The College of New Jersey.
Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
