Emperor Alberto the First

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori’s declaration that he will seek an unprecedented third term is bad news for democracy. One, it will violate the Peruvian constitution, a 1993 document that explicitly bans a third presidential term. Two, Fujimori’s attempt to circumvent the prohibition through legal maneuvering by allies in Peru’s Congress discredits the rule of law.

Fujimori, 61, was first elected in 1990 and was reelected in 1995. One year later, his cadre in Congress engineered a law that excluded him from the constitutional ban on a third term. His supporters argued that since the president’s first term began before the constitution was written, the ban would not apply to a reelection bid in 2000.

This manipulation of the legal system is disingenuous and prompted three high-level judges to oppose the move on constitutional grounds. All three were subsequently kicked off the courts. Having surmounted that hurdle, the president’s forces blocked a public referendum designed to deny his reelection bid.

Fujimori, born in Peru of Japanese immigrants, says he’s pursuing the presidency again “because there are no alternatives,” a disparaging criticism of his two main opponents in the 2000 election, who he insists cannot spur economic recovery or suppress crime.

In his decade in power, Fujimori has built a legacy of ruthless effectiveness. He is credited with breaking the back of the murderous Shining Path guerrillas and staging a spectacular military action to free the hostages taken in the Japanese Embassy siege in April 1997. But back in 1992, when Congress opposed him he shut it down without remorse, and later the Supreme Court suffered the same fate.

The president has done a good job in bringing hyperinflation under control, reducing the figure from 7,000% in 1990 to 6% today. But Fujimori will not brook criticism from any quarter and has threatened, defamed, harassed or forced into exile many journalists who challenged the legality of his decisions.

Fujimori has ruled Peru as if he were an emperor. Whether or not he fulfills the pollsters’ prediction of his reelection victory next year, he will have done a great disservice to government in Latin America.