By Hugo Ballon
KEIKO Fujimori will bring back ‘the worst days in Peru’s history’ if she wins the election on Sunday, a former congressional candidate has said.
Jorge Chumpitaz, an expert on the Alberto Fujimori era, told Redaction Report that the neoliberal ideology of ‘Fujimorismo’ is the “antithesis to democracy”.
Chumpitaz has previously run for election for Juntos por el Peru, a progressive party led by Veronika Mendoza, who garnered over a million votes in the first round.
The latest polls for the final round show the right-wing candidate closing in on the first-round front runner, with leftist Pedro Castillo just two points ahead.
Keiko Fujimori is a well-known politician who has grown up in the spotlight. She is the daughter of Peru’s last dictator, Alberto Fujimori who left office in 2000 after fleeing to Japan to avoid corruption investigations.
However, he left behind Fujimorismo, a socially conservative ideology, which is authoritarian in nature.
The Fujimori family has a notorious pattern of violating human rights and corrupting essential democratic institutions.
Chumpitaz, a professor, economist, and member of Nuevo Peru, has been working on informing the youth on the Fujimori Era through his social media programme, Chumpi Alerta. He has amassed thousands of views on his informative Facebook live series, which aims to form a collective memory of the heinous acts from the Fujimori dictatorship.
Alberto Fujimori has an extensive record of criminal charges: murder, human rights violations, kidnapping, embezzlement, bribery, corruption, abuse of powers, and his involvement in the Barios Altos and La Cantina massacre.
In an interview with Redaction Report, he described Fujimorismo as an “antithesis to democracy” and “band of criminals looking to bring back the worst days in Peru’s history.”
Although Keiko Fujimori should not be held accountable for her father’s political malpractice, her campaign promise of pardoning her father from his 25 prison sentence is concerning to Chumpitaz. When asked about the possibility of a pardon, he said: “This would be a devastating blow for our citizens and their trust in our judicial process.”
The judicial system and the media were some of the institutions Fujimori contaminated with corruption during his days in office.
“Vladimiro Montesinos was Alberto Fujimori’s right hand man and was put in charge of using the nation’s intelligence and funds to negotiate with corporations and media networks for favourable news coverage of the dictatorship,” Chumpitaz said.
There were also cases of “persecuted union leaders, and silenced or assassinated journalists.”
According to Chumpitaz, Fujimori’s media control has remained two decades after he left office.
He said “99.9 per cent of the press favours Keiko,” which feels like Deja vu for the professor.
Most recently, El Comercio, an influential newspaper, fired their chief editor after she declared she would be reporting the news impartially.
READ MORE: Veronika Mendoza’s rise could ensure Peru is swept up in the Pink Tide in Latin America
El Comercio currently holds a press monopoly in the country. They own and control 80 per cent of the nation’s written press.
Keiko Fujimori’s political playbook resembles that of her father’s.
Her technical staff comprises many of Alberto’s co-conspirators, including narco-trafficker Joaquin Ramirez, who is currently under investigation for money laundering on Keiko’s behalf.
Although Keiko has already served prison time for obstructing justice, bribery, and money laundering, and is prohibited from leaving the country, her only hope of escaping a 30-year prison sentence for corruption is by winning the upcoming election.
Chumpitaz concluded: “She is the head of a political party, but in reality, it’s simply a criminal organization.”
Featured Image: Congreso de la República del Perú @ Flickr
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