Alberto Fujimori returns to the front line as an 'influencer' on Twitter and Tik Tok

For 35 years, Alberto Fujimori has been the great

influencer

of Peruvian politics and he does not intend to stop being so.

Each of the steps of the outsider who defeated Mario Vargas Llosa in the nineties has a direct impact on the national reality.

He established a dictatorship and an unwavering political force with his last name;

He planted political ambitions in his daughter Keiko, who has not stopped trying for power;

He gave rise to anti-Fujimorism, the most robust political party in the country;

and she has been the

hot potato

of several presidents who have debated whether to grant her clemency or not.

Three months have passed since the Fujimori patriarch left the Barbadillo prison, northeast of Lima, thanks to a questioned ruling by the Constitutional Court that revalidated a humanitarian pardon, granted by former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in December 2017. His image has taken a notable turn, awakening a wave of criticism considering that his release is a farce.

From the emaciated Fujimori who left prison, with a nasal cannula and an oxygen cylinder, to the Fujimori who recently announced his new TikTok account and website, without problems breathing and wearing a youthful turquoise shirt, there is a chasm.

“Dear friends: to expand my defense presented in the court hearings, in which there is obviously limited time, I have decided to reopen my official social networks,” said the former autocrat and then gave the exact address of each of his accounts. .

Just a day before, Fujimori, this time with the nasal cannula in place, had made a request to Judge Miluska Cano, in charge of the Pativilca case - where he is accused of being the direct author of the kidnapping, torture and murder of six peasants. in 1992—: that the number of hearings be reduced due to his delicate state of health.

“I would request that, please, a maximum of two hearings per week could be scheduled, because three would cause me great stress, a tension that would aggravate my health condition.

I suffer from paroxysmal atrial defibrillation, a heart disease;

and I also suffer from fibrosis,” she implored the magistrate, with a clearly different countenance.

The judge left the possibility open, emphasizing that her presence is necessary in essential cases: "as soon as you have a difficulty with your health, you inform the court and the court will consider it in the fairest way possible."

After his release from prison on December 7, Fujimori was not seen in the first weeks, even at the end of the year holidays.

He reappeared publicly in January to carry out procedures, such as updating his data in the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec), and limited himself to sending greetings.

In the fortnight of February, after undergoing some check-ups at a clinic, he answered current questions and even said he had “forgotten about politics” because he was “more focused on his health.”

A week later he changed his mind and even said something: he confirmed that Fuerza Popular, the party led by his daughter Keiko, has an alliance with President Dina Boluarte that ensures her permanence in the Palace until 2026;

He pointed out that Fujimorism will run in the next elections, without specifying whether they will insist on Keiko as a candidate;

and he treated Vladimiro Montesinos, his former presidential advisor, who is behind bars for multiple crimes, with kid gloves: “every person makes his mistakes, right?

But he fulfilled his function.”

With these statements, Fujimori officially returned to the political arena and made it clear that he does not intend to retire.

Keiko did not disappoint her father.

Several 'Orange' congressmen were in charge of this and tried to justify what the former president said with juggling.

From the Executive, the outgoing Prime Minister Alberto Otárola denied any pact.

But Fujimori had already achieved his goal: to shake up the political scene at 85 years old.

The vitality that it has recovered in record time is a cause for study.

The digital program La Encerrona revealed a photo of Fujimori at a lunch without any medical assistance, conversing without depending on the oxygen cylinder or his nasal cannula, objects with which he does appear in the virtual hearings for the trials that follow him.

Gisela Ortiz, representative of the bereaved of La Cantuta—university students murdered by the paramilitary group Colina in 1992 for supposedly being terrorists—has expressed his regret: “to connect to the hearings he is exhausted, sick, on oxygen.

But to keep up with his social networks, he smiles, he doesn't use his oxygen and he has time.

The great farce of the disease and the supposed reasons for humanitarian pardon do not exist.

Only in the country of injustices and mockery of the pain and rights of the victims, a person convicted of serious crimes is freed by political arrangements.”

After requesting an extension, the Peruvian State will have until April 2 to send a report to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Fujimori's release, contravening an order from said supranational organization.

In a few days, Fujimori's TikTok account approaches 60 thousand followers.

The description of him leaves no one indifferent: “the president who changed Peru.”

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