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As Ex-President Faces Trial, a Reckoning for Peru

Lima, Peru: Both critics and admirers of the former Peruvian strongman Alberto K. Fujimori long argued that he deserved his day in court to explain the political killings, abductions and corruption during his rule. Mr. Fujimori even said so after the Chilean Supreme Court ruled in favor of extraditing him last week, claiming that the court case was part of a “strategy” to return to Peru.

But as Mr. Fujimori settles into a jail cell here before his trial, the prospect of that day coming to pass is creating little but unease. A country that may have preferred to forget about the methods used by Mr. Fujimori to vanquish leftist insurgents and economic instability is now being forced to reckon with them.

“The ugly truth of Fujimori was the tacit support that many Peruvians had for his tactics,” said Jorge Bruce, a prominent political analyst here. “This judgment will be of him but also of our society.”
Read entire article at NYT