A picture of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori who was serving a 25-year prison sentence is seen outside Centenario hospital after President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned him, in Lima, Peru, December 25, 2017. The sign reads: "Lord have mercy and forgive those who hate me". (Photo by Geraldo Caso/NurPhoto/Sipa USA)
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Five hours before Christmas Day, a press release from the Presidency of Peru bore the news that Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had given his approval to the humanitarian pardon of Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to 25 years in 2009. The pardon allows the autocrat to walk free after twelve years in jail. He was convicted for having command responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres, in 1991 and 1992, and he was also sentenced on charges of corruption, robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Kuczynski accelerated the pardon in order to avoid being deposed by the Fujimorista majority in Congress. The deal sparked protests by the anti-Fujimorista camp: every day since Christmas Eve, they are staging marches in Lima and in a third of the regions in the country.
