Peru: 'Fujimori controlled everything'

Colombia's Cambio magazine has an interview with Peruvian journalist and Shining Path expert, Gustavo Gorriti. Gorriti has been in the news himself again recently, rather than just writing it, as his was one of the cases dealt with in the Fujimori trial. Gorriti, a prominent researcher, was abducted briefly by state agents shortly after the 1992 'self-coup' in which Fujimori dissolved Congress.

He discusses this incident and the trial as well as the point made by supporters of Fujimori that the latter is being unfairly persecuted in contrast to other former Presidents.

"statistically, there were more deaths by forced disappearance under the Belaúnde and [first] García regimes than under Fujimori. That is true, but there is a difference.
In the cases of Belaúnde and García the problem was a sort of abdication of democratic authority. Those presidents wanted to uphold the Constitution and at some point they were overruled by the Armed Forces. In the case of Fujimori, he had total control over what happened, created the apparatus of SIN (National Intelligence Service) from which he ruled and he gave orders to create the Colina group. That's why he was condemned.

In the comments, Colombian readers draw direct parallels between Fujimori and their own current President Uribe.

'Fujimori controlaba todo' (Cambio)