Peru’s ex-leader Alberto Fujimori dies at 86

CNN —

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, whose complicated and painful legacy included stabilizing the country’s economy before being jailed for human rights violations and corruption scandals, has died at the age of 86.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord. We ask those who loved him to accompany us with a prayer for the eternal rest of his soul,” his daughter Keiko Fujimori said Wednesday night on X.

Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000 during some of the nation’s most divided times, had been fighting for his health, his primary care physician Alejandro Aguinaga said earlier on Wednesday in brief statements to reporters outside the home of Keiko Fujimori.

Fujimori had previously revealed he had been diagnosed with a new malignant tumor in May.

A deeply divisive figure in his country, Fujimori’s tenure in office brought the country back from the brink of economic collapse, and saw the defeat of a terrorist group that had destabilized the country.

But he was also a authoritarian leader who used security forces to crack down on opponents, and was later convicted of serious human rights violations and corruption.

From political outsider to strongman

The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori studied at an agricultural university in the Peruvian capital of Lima before traveling overseas for his graduate education in the US and France.

Once back in Peru, he hosted a television show focused on environmental issues before launching a presidential bid in 1989 as the leader of a new party – Cambio 90 (“Change 90”) – eventually defeating future Nobel literature prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.

His rise saw him join a small number of