Eduardo Gael Becerril Ramírez

(Neo) populism and Democracy – case of Fujimorism

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This text relates the process of a personalist leader in a disorganized society that emerged from the
total darkness of a country, this after the problems that haunted Peru for 20 years after 1980; this
affirms that the crises generate neopopopulist leaderships and confront the political class directly.
Neo-populists must show performance and sustainability to the government in order to
demonstrate that they are doing their job no matter how they do it and the people will be happy.

Neo-populists pronounce themselves as outsiders to the political class, i.e. they stayed away from
being corrupt and avoided being part of any political party. The classic populists only focused on
some organizations still have large social sectors such as the middle and working class, which are
easy to organize, but the neopopopulists generally focus on poor and uneducated people. The
media and its impact on the masses, especially TV which helps neo-populists reach their followers
more effectively. As well as opinion polls.

In general, Fujimori came to the presidency with no experience and with considerable success he
was able to have the acceptance of the masses before and during his term in office. His promises
of returning to normalcy and eliminating problems helped him get into people's heads to achieve
his goals. Fujimori rescued Peru from guerrilla warfare and economic collapse. He became stronger
and was able to get re-elected, but he gradually weakened and had to resort to extreme measures
to extend his mandate. In the end he and his advisor Montesinos had to flee the country.

Furjimori and friends changed the Peruvian constitution and resorted to many means to stay in
power, that is, they became authoritarian and manipulative in order to be reelected. However, they
could not please the people anymore; therefore, in neopopopulism no firm organizations are built
and that is why the leaders are only temporary, however, neopopopulism persists.

 Weyland, Kurt Gerhard. 2006. „The Rise and Decline of Fujimori ́s Neopopulist Leadership.
“ In: The Fujimory Legacy: The Rise and fall of Electoral Authoritarianism in Peru. Ed. Julio F
Carrión. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 13–38.
Eduardo Gael Becerril Ramírez

In this text, Fujimori is presented as an authoritarian who should have been judged from his

beginnings in power. Through manipulation and the power he already had, he was able to reelect

himself and fraudulent elections in which the citizens of Peru themselves pronounced themselves

as nonconformists.

It is important to value not only the electoral processes, but also the democratic record of the

participants, as well as the intentions and capabilities of the candidates for the positions they are

applying for.

The constitution was modified as a coup d'état, attempts were made to extend the term of office,

manipulation during elections, all these points must be taken into account to prove a true

democracy, without leaving aside the power exercised by the use of political violence to terrorize

or demonize the opposition and the voters.

When someone applies for a political post, they must demonstrate their ability to do the job and

their capabilities must be evaluated. It is also necessary to establish standards in the electoral field.

Without these points, it can be said that elections are held without true democracy.

 McClintock, Cynthia. 2006. „Electoral Authoritarian versus Partially Democratic Regimes:

The Case of the Fujimori Government and the 2000 Elections. “ In: The Fujimory Legacy: The
Rise and fall of Electoral Authoritarianism in Peru. Ed. Julio F Carrión. The Pensylvania State
University Press, 242–267.
Eduardo Gael Becerril Ramírez

This documentary was made because Peruvians are asking for answers about what happened during
the 20-year civil war that involved the "Shining Path", a guerrilla movement commanded by Abimael
Guzman, a philosophy professor. The truth commission (created with the purpose of seeking truth
and democracy) collected 20,000 testimonies of rural, indigent, middle class, urban, military and
civilian people who participated in the filming process in which the story is told in which about
70,000 people died.
Abimael Guzmán proposed an ideology that proposed to build a kind of paradise on earth and
considered it necessary to destroy everything that was present. He based his philosophy of social
change on revolution through Marxism, Maoism and with the help of the bad conditions in Peru he
created a terrorist movement called "Sendero luminoso" The destiny of the people was to take up
arms to reach a new society and a new world. All this was achieved through manipulation, because
if a person does not know where he/she comes from or where he/she is going, he/she can be easily
manipulated. Young people were easily attracted to war because of the power they had in their
hands with the use of power and weapons.
Guzman demanded absolute loyalty from everyone, you were either with them or against them.
Intimidation, violence and assassinations functioned as fundamental tactics to terrorize civilians.
They said they had ways of knowing everything. In 1980 he ordered his followers to initiate an armed
struggle to begin the conquest of power. The "Shining Path" found help first in villages, and then
began a display of violence. Guzman wanted to get closer to Lima and little by little he got closer.
Going from the countryside to the city. Lima remained a place apart from the country, while
everything was happening, Lima remained isolated and ill-informed.
 1982 - Fernando Belaúnde Terry as president ordered the armed forces to combat such a
terrorist movement. But they entered Peru unprepared.
 1985 - Alan Garcia: president gave the armed forces control over life in the emergency
zones. Some villages fought each other alone with the weapons given to them by Sendero
Luminoso, nobody knew who to follow (military or terrorism).
 1989 - The promise betrayed: People started to get disappointed and began to send
information to the army.
 1990: He ordered his followers to advance to Lima. No one knew where Guzmán was.
Alberto Fujimori offered hope and the population gave him support. He decided to dissolve
the congress of the republic as a coup d'état.
 1992 Guzman was captured by the armed forces without firing a shot. The Shining Path
members were left without leadership and began to inform on each other. And their
organization was eliminated. Fujimori took all the credit.
The tyranny of fear: Fujimori ("El chino") - His way of doing politics was based on the media,
especially TV. Fujimori dictated the content of the TV news. To manipulate public opinion and
changed the constitution to become president for the third time. Thousands of people were
imprisoned for terrorism and the jails were filled with innocent people. Montesinos and Fujimori
were in power: They created the Colina group to impose their political will. They eliminated political
opponents and journalists. Fujimori fled to Japan and Montesinos was captured. Today, due to lack
of justice, Peru has more conflicts and a fragile democracy.