Peru's polarizing ex-president Fujimori dies at 86

LIMA

Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled his country with an iron fist and then spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, died on Sept. 11 at age 86 in the capital Lima.

"After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord," his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori wrote on social media platform X.

"Thank you for so much, Dad!" they added.

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on humanitarian grounds in December, two-thirds of the way through a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his rule.

He was a key part of Peru's so-called war on terrorism in the form of Shining Path and Tupac Amaru leftist rebels. It left more than 69,000 people dead and 21,000 missing from 1980 to 2000, most of them civilians, according to a government truth commission.

As news of his death spread quickly on social media, supporters and detractors quarreled over his legacy.

Many Peruvians called Fujimori, who was of Japanese descent, "el chino," or the Chinese man.

After his death Wednesday supporters gathered outside his house chanting "El chino did not die! El chino is present!"

Just a month earlier his daughter Keiko had announced that the right winger would run for president again in 2026.

Fujimori was convicted and sent to prison in 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992.

In December 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori due to his ill health.

But the Supreme Court later annulled the pardon and in January 2019, he was returned to jail from hospital. He was released again in December 2023 after a court reinstated his pardon.