Photo courtesy of Nueva Sociedad. This article is being published as part of the partnership between Nueva Sociedad and democraciaAbierta. You can read the original article here.
In the last two months, the pardoning of Alberto Fujimori has gone from being a possibility to being a certainty in Peru. Those who, in one way or other, are close to power are speculating only about its timing. But everybody assumes it will happen. It seems that Alberto Fujimori's release from prison has become part of the formula that could ensure the governability that the government led by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has been looking for. How has this situation come about? What political calculations are the Peruvian government and Fujimorism making?
Pedro Pablo Kuzcynski won the presidency by a narrow margin: only 40.000 more votes than his opponent, Keiko Fujimori. Although he defeated the former dictator's daughter, the result was much more complex. Keiko Fujimori, with 24% of the popular vote, lost indeed, but thanks to the electoral law currently in force, she won 73 of the 130 seats in the unicameral parliament – that is, 56% of the congressional votes. So, at the April 2016 elections, Fujimorism obtained a sufficient majority to pass any ordinary law and is only twelve votes short of the number of votes necessary to change the Constitution. To this parliamentary strength must be added the muscle of the People’s Force, which is the political organization in Peru that is closest to what could be defined as a political party. Keiko Fujimori, who does not hesitate to use a stick and carrot policy whenever necessary, leads this movement with a strong hand.
