Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who led the country from 1990 to 2000, died on Wednesday in Lima at the age of 86 after a long battle with cancer, according to his family in a statement released on September 11. Fujimori suffered a number of health problems, including stomach ulcers, hypertension, and tongue cancer. In May, the former leader revealed that he had been diagnosed with a new cancerous tumour. “After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,” his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “We ask those who loved him to accompany us with a prayer for the eternal rest of his soul.”

Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was virtually unknown when he was elected to power in 1990, during a period of economic uncertainty. The former university president and mathematics professor set out to revive the economy, reduce hyperinflation, and combat drug trafficking. He privatised dozens of state-owned businesses and reduced trade tariffs, and Peru briefly became one of Latin America’s most stable economies. Abimael Guzman, head of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso, commonly known as the Shining Path, was apprehended and convicted of terrorism while he was in charge. It inflicted a blow to a movement that appeared to be on the verge of overthrowing Peru’s government in the 1980s.

Guzmán died in prison on September 2021. In 1992, Fujimori briefly shut down Congress and the judiciary, accusing them of impeding his efforts to destroy the Shining Path, enact severe anti-terrorism legislation, and push for free-market economic reform. Fujimori then took over all legislative and judicial authorities.

During his 10-year term, the former leader was also involved in corruption scandals. Shortly after winning a third term in 2000, recordings surfaced showing his top intelligence head, Vladimiro Montesinos, reportedly passing out cash to bribe lawmakers and journalists. Fujimori, a dual citizen of Peru and Japan, fled to Tokyo after the video surfaced. He resigned soon after and unsuccessfully ran for a Japanese Senate seat. Montesinos was later apprehended in Venezuela and imprisoned. In 2005, after five years of exile in Japan, Fujimori was apprehended while flying to Chile.

He was extradited to Peru in 2007. In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights breaches after a court found him legally liable for the deaths of 25 persons by army death squads between 1991 and 1992. Although Fujimori was not determined to have personally authorised the killings, he was held accountable because the crimes were carried out in his government’s name. Fujimori was given a presidential pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2017, but it was overturned by Peru’s Supreme Court in October 2018.

Peru’s Constitutional Court later confirmed the pardon, and he was released from Lima’s Barbadillo Prison in December 2023 on humanitarian grounds, after serving more than 15 years of a 25-year prison sentence. He is survived by four children. Fujimori’s eldest daughter, Keiko, served as first lady in 1996 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2011, 2016, and 2021. Fujimori’s youngest kid, Kenji, was elected to Congress in 2011 until being suspended in 2018 due to corruption allegations.