History - Peru - page 1032

FUJISHOCK

With the country in a state of chaos, the 1990 presidential elections took on more import-
ance than ever. The contest was between famed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and Alberto
Fujimori, a little-known agronomist of Japanese descent. During the campaign, Vargas
Llosa promoted an economic 'shock treatment' program that many feared would send more
Peruvians into poverty, while Fujimori positioned himself as an alternative to the status
quo. Fujimori won handily. But as soon as he got into office, he implemented an even more
austere economic plan that, among other things, drove up the price of gasoline by 3000%.
The measures, known as 'Fujishock,' ultimately succeeded in reducing inflation and stabil-
izing the economy - but not without costing the average Peruvian dearly.
Fujimori followed this, in April of 1992, with an autogolpe (coup from within). He dis-
solved the legislature and generated an entirely new congress, one stocked with his allies.
Peruvians, not unused to caudillos, tolerated the power grab, hoping that Fujimori might
help stabilize the economic and political situation - which he did. The economy grew. And
by the end of the year, leaders of both Sendero Luminoso and MRTA had been apprehen-
ded (though, not before Sendero Luminoso had brutally assassinated community activist
María Elena Moyano and detonated lethal truck bombs in Lima's tony Miraflores district).
The Internal Conflict, however, wasn't over.
In December of 1996, 14 members of MRTA
stormed the Japanese ambassador's residence
and hundreds of prominent people were taken
hostage, demanding that the government release
imprisoned MRTA members, among other
things. Most of the hostages were released early
on, though 72 men were held until the following
April - at which point, Peruvian commandos
stormed the embassy, killing every last captor and releasing the surviving hostages.
By the end of his second term, Fujimori's administration was plagued by allegations of
corruption. He ran for a third term in 2000 (which was technically unconstitutional) and re-
mained in power despite the fact that he didn't have the simple majority necessary to claim
the election. Within the year, however, he was forced to flee the country after it was re-
vealed that his security chief Vladimiro Montesinos had been embezzling government
funds and bribing elected officials and the media. (Many of these acts were caught on film:
the 'Vladivideos' - all 2700 of them - riveted the nation when they first aired in 2001.)
Fujimori formally resigned the presidency from abroad, but the legislature rejected the ges-
ture, voting him out of office and declaring him 'morally unfit' to govern.

For dedicated students of Peruvian history, The
Peru Reader, by Orin Starn, Carlos Iván Degregori
and Robin Kirk provides an indispensable collec-
tion of articles covering every historical era - from
excerpts of Spanish chronicles to essays on the co-
caine economy.