Keiko Fujimori: Thief, Liar, Assassin and President?

May 26, 2011 / Posted in  Perú

Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa against Keiko as president of Perú 2011

Over one hundred Peruvian writers, among them the Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, have signed an open letter rejecting and repudiating the return of the Fujimori family to power.  Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Miguel Gutiérrez, Rodolfo Hinistroza, Daniel Alarcón, Santiago Roncagliolo, Fernando Iwasaki, Jorge Eduardo Benavides and Eduardo González Viaña are among the novelists signing the document.  According to the manifest called “Against Fujimorism return and in favor of democracy” Keiko’s election would represent a national defeat in a country that has managed to judge for crimes against humanity Alberto Fujimori’s officials and the former present himself.  The writers in unison proclaimed that “Peru should reject impunity, expand the faith in the democratic system with justice for all and possibility of progress in a legitimate manner.”  (http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/68159/writers-reject-fujimori-comeback; on a counterpunch, read: http://www.peruviantimes.com/25/vargas-llosa-de-soto-launch-attacks-in-presidential-campaign/12362/)  

Perú trial judges before convicting Alberto Fujimori for crimes against humanity

At first, Keiko’s stated aim was to free her father (who is sitting in a luxury prison especially built for him where he lacks none of the refinements of comfort; http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2073761,00.html), who is serving 25 years for authorizing death squad killings (A three-judge panel convicted him of ordering a military death squad to carry out massacres during his 1990 to 2000 rule. Wall Street Journal April 7, 2009, leading to protests

Fujimori, Montesinos y Gral Hermoza ordered the assassination of Agent Mariela Barreto

against Fujimori who had his military and paramilitary forces execute workers and laborers indiscriminately) that included tortures worse than even Adolf Hitler could have conceived; for example:  Mariela Barreto was quartered using surgical equipment, and the precision of the cuts indicates that they were performed by someone with a master knowledge of anatomy.  Barreto’s remains were found in three different sacks left on a road outside Lima, a few days before those who found the sacks reveal the exact location of the mass grave where the remains of

Murder of Intelligence Agent Mariela Barreto for exposing Alberto Fujimori

the victims of a massacre were buried as if they had been mad dogs put to a painful death by men who were less than animals themselves.  Ms. Barreto Barreto had been a member of an intelligence unit known as the Grupo Colina, a death squad led by Major Santiago Martin Rivas, under the direction of the Presidential Advisor and intimate friend of Alberto and his four children (Keiko was quite fond of him)

Vladimiro Montesinos (l) and Alberto Fujimori (r)

Vladimiro Montesinos who ordered her execution as a reprisal of the Colina group members who assassinated students and teachers who were considered to “left-wing” by the Fujimoris, because she passed information to the press about the mass grave of La Cantuta massacre victims.  These acts were coupled by open looting of the National Treasury by Fujimori and Montesinos during Alberto Fujimori’s blood-drenched 1990-2000 rule (Briceno, Franklin and Salazar, Carla. “Shadow of the Disgraced president looms in the Peru race, St. Petersburg, FL (USA) Times {May 20, 2011} and forcing on unwilling (and in most cases, unknowing) poor people mass sterilizations identical to the maneuver of Adolf Hitler. Read: “Shadow of disgraced president looms in Peru race” at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/photos/7/717674f0-64bb-4e12-b478-6781b15bb9b1.html?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT).

Women were coerced, lied to, and forced to be sterilized, sometimes being told that if they didn’t get their tubes tied, the government would stop giving food to their children. Nurses in hospitals had sterilization quotas to meet. When women in a village were sterilized, some of the nurses who helped in the operations were also forced to be sterilized or else lose their jobs, which they usually did anyway, but Keiko was never forced to undergo the procedure although she met the criteria, and helped create it (read http://vivirlatino.com/2009/04/16/add-this-to-fujimoris-crimes-mass-sterilizations.php; see the videos at http://carlosqc.blogspot.com/2009/06/videos-interview-with-perus-indigenous.html).  One of Keiko’s top campaign adviser, Alejandro Aguinaga, was Fujimori’s health minister when the government was accused of forcing some 3,000 poor peasant women to be sterilized. Fujimori’sallies, like Keiko, said the women consented.  Evidence shows otherwise, and even one Congresswoman who was forcibly sterilized contradicts her colleague’s rhetoric on the campaign trail, as InsightTV noted:

Victim of forced sterilization by Fujimori

“The police said to my husband ‘if she doesn’t get sterilised, the police will arrest you right now and you will be sterilised instead… they threw me on the trolley and tied me up” Rudesinda Quillawamang.

When Fujimori launched a massive family planning campaign in the mid-nineties it was widely hailed and supported by the United Nations and international aid agencies alike. His aim, he said, was to liberate men and women from the burden of poverty and large families. Now, he’s facing genocide charges. During the Fujimori regime, the current government says, over 300,000 men and women were sterilised against their will (read: http://www.insightnewstv.com/d68/).

Many, including Mario Vargas Llosa, have said Keiko is more comfortable in living a lie than telling the truth.  As for being knowledgeable about the Perú Constitution or duties as a Congressional representative, Keiko is at a loss.  First elected in 2006, she has missed 370 sessions during her tenure, some for maternity leave as she gave birth to two daughters, some for finishing a master’s degree in business administration at Columbia University–all at the expense of the Perú treasury.  As for legislation: Keiko has sponsored just six laws in all.

Today, to win the presidency, Keiko has temporarily rejected that idea, although those close to her state that she will pardon Alberto once she is elected.  The common thought is she will restore the military to hegemonic control and further debase the economy and reestablish death squads to root out those who opposed her father and those who oppose her plans to reshape Perú in her own image.

 In 2009, Keiko complained Keiko Fujimori further complained that her father was convicted “like a terrorist leader” (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/263689,keiko-fujimori-launches-crusade-for-her-father.html).  “I do not believe that there was asystematic human rights violation policy, since the anti-terrorist policy to achieve the pacification of Peru was to strengthen the Armed Forces, to have state presence in faraway places and to gain back the confidence of the population,” she argued, ignoring that the greatest terrorists in Perú during the dictatorship of her father came out of the military who were ordered by Alberto to kill all who opposed him.

Vigil for those who were slaughtered by Alberto Fujimori's paramilitary assassins

Throughout her campaign, Keiko has regularly defended her father. top campaign aide, Jaime Yoshiyama, led the legislative body that rewrote Peru’s constitution after Alberto Fujimori shut down congress in 1992. That allowed him to be re-elected twice.

Most Peruanos recall Alberto Fujimori as the man who led the most corrupt government in their country’s modern history.  Since Alberto Fujimori fled Peru in disgrace and faxed his resignation from his ancestral Japan in 2000 (where his ambition was to run for the Japanese Senate {June 8, 2008, read at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/28/1964095.htm}, and marry a Japanese wife: Satomi Kataoka, read at: http://www.livinginperu.com/news/7202), nearly 1,500 people connected to the Fujimori government have been prosecuted on corruption and other

Keiko and Kenji Fujimori (both elected to Perú's Congress both lacking experience)

charges, and many of the current Fujimoristas in the Perú Congress are now under active investigation for narcotrafficking, as is Keiko and her brother Kenji—neither of whom have worked even one day at any job, preferring being pampered and their expenses (such as Keiko’s tuition and living costs at Columbia University in New York City) by the Perú Treasury.  Alberto Fujimori stole from the Perú treasury more than US$354,000 to educate his four children in the USA.  Fujimori paid $ 300 thousand a month for the department where they were staying and when Keiko was visiting Peru, and handed his daughter an envelope with $ 10,000 for her “expenses” (above tuition and books) in the U.S. between 1994 and 1998 (Fujimori pagó mil 300 dólares mensuales por el departamento donde se hospedaban y cuando Keiko venía de visita a Perú, le entregaba un sobre con 10 mil dólares para sus gastos en EEUU entre 1994 a 1998; read http://contextonoticias.blogspot.com/2009/05/contraloria-alberto-fujimori-gasto.html)

At the same time, Alberto Fujimori paid for all international trips taken by children as they jetted around the world.  The money for the adventures came from the National Intelligence Service (SIN) which in turn extorted it from the National Treasury, as Fujimori’s former aide Vladimiro Montesinos confessed.

1. Keiko Fujimori; 2. Kenyi Fujimori; 3. Hiro Fujimori; 4. Sachi Fujimori (Alberto Fujimori spent $ 94 000 in Keiko, 150 thousand dollars in Hiro, 50 thousand dollars in $ 60 000 Sachi and Kenji in, so that they could study at USA universities)

Today’s Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori, running for President of the Republic of Perú denies the theft.  Keiko claims that her father sold the family apartment to pay for the studies of her siblings–which is an obvious lie as the property was sold in 1999 after she and Hiro completed their studies. Alberto Fujimori’s former aide Vladimiro Montesinos confessed that he paid the education of children of Fujimori to use the money from the National Intelligence Service (SIN)–at the time that Keiko first flew to New York. [Pero también se encarga de pagar los viajes que realizaban sus hijos por diversas partes del mundo.
Se debe indicar que el ex asesor Vladimiro Montesinos confesó que él pagó la educación de los hijos de Fujimori al usar el dinero del Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (SIN).
Sin embargo, la ahora congresista Keiko Fujimori lo negó y dijo que su padre vendió un departamento de la familia para costear los estudios de ella y de sus hermanos. Aunque el inmueble se vendió recién en 1999 cuando ya concluyeron sus carreras ella y Hiro.
El citado programa buscó a la ex primera dama de la Nación para brinde una declaración al respecto, pero se excusó de dar una entrevista.]

What an poor professor of agriculture (Alberto Fujimori) spent on his children’s education in the USA–at the expense of the people of Perú

Alberto Fujimori's corrupt judiciary openly took bribes

Pedro Gamarra, an anti-corruption prosecutor handling cases from Fujimori’s presidency, has noted: “In the history of South America, at least, nowhere have so many people have been tried for corruption beginning with the president, his ministers and generals.” Among those convicted and sentenced to prison are eight former Cabinet ministers, three former military commanders, an attorney general and a former chief of the Supreme Court of Perú who did as they were told and received monetary compensation for their rulings in favor of the death squads and the dictatorship until they were openly exposed on film, as well as uneducated but obedient soldiers who belonged to a secret death squad that killed no less than fifty people, including an

Javier Manuel Ríos Rojas, age 8, murdered by Fujimori's death squads

eight-year-old boy who was about to eat.  The boy’s name was Javier Manuel Ríos Rojas, but he was not the only child victim of Fujimori’s cruelty nor singled out by the “Colinas” as the assassins were known, but other children simply vanished without a trace, although today bodies are being exhumed from the earth and attention is given to determine who the remains had at one time been; Fujimori disavowed the murders as being the actions of those who were overly zealous. The question is: how can any person be so committed to one ruler that he would execute an eight year old boym which is what Fujimori’s thugs did without remorse or pity.  Others followed Javier Manuel Rios Rojas to the grave at the hands of Fujimori’s paramilitary “Colina” who even went into areas where parties were being given in celebration of birthdays, anniversaries and even weddings, as was the case where assassins paid by the Fujimoris entered into Los Barrios Altos and left a blood bath equal to the carnage of Chicago when Al Capone ruled as if was the godfather of the Fujimoria).  These executions  Keiko was privy to knowing since, as a teenager, she served as First Lady and special advisor to her father.  Not only is Keiko considered guilty of theft, assassination and assassination plots (both successful and aborted), and looting the national treasury in Lima, but two brothers and two sisters of the former president are on a list of 55 government-linked fugitives.  There are many Peruanos who still support Alberto and see nothing wrong with his death squads, untold horrors of torture of women, children, and men, nor his destruction of the Perú Constitution, dissolving Perú’s Congress, or establishing a dictatorship as affirmed by Jair Rodriquez at Tarapoto (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2073761,00.html).

Keiko Fujimori and husband Mark Villanella in Lima (13 March 2011)

Keiko’s husband’s father, Joseph Villanella Jr., a one-time USA executive is a felon in the USA for not reporting fully or paying obligatory income taxes.  He served three years probation and paid a $5000 fine (The Record of Hackensack reported in 2000 that Villanella Jr. had failed to report $36,400 in income and that three other “close relatives” involved in the family business also pleaded guilty to tax evasion;  while Mark Villanella (who met Keiko while at Columbia University in New York City), a one time IBM managing consultant before moving to Perú, is under investigation (read more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_peru_election_fujimori_husband, and http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/father-in-law-of-peru-presidential-candidate-evaded-us-taxes/2011/05/25/AGWJ3KBH_story.html?wprss=rss_world and http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/2011/05/father-law-peru-candidate-evaded-us-taxes among numerous other accounts; his son, Mark Villanella (Keiko’s husband), told reporters: “My father made an administrative mistake in not paying taxes of about $11,000 and he paid them with the corresponding penalties”–but taxes are filed by individuals in the USA (Form 1040) as businesses have their own forms, such as Forms 1065, 1120, and so forth–as I have filed taxes for 45 years as a professional tax preparer in the  USA and have a PTIN license from the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] and excuses are not acceptable under IRS regulations).  

Avelino Guillén

Transparency International deemed Fujimori the seventh most corrupt leader in modern times on a list topped by Suharto, the former Indonesian leader. It estimated members of Alberto Fujimori’s administration stole $600 million. Estimates by others reach into the billions.  Avelino Guillen, the prosecutor who eventually won the former dictator’s 2009 conviction on human rights abuses, payment of over $15 million to his chief spy Vladimiro Montesinos, and numerous other charges of corruption, noted that only about $184 million has been recovered from bank accounts in Switzerland, the United States, Luxembourg and Panama.

Poverty in Cusco, Perú 2011

Those who support Keiko are among the upper-middle class and the wealthy (especially of Lima) and poor Peruvians who credit her father with defeating Shining Path rebels and putting the economy on solid footing after former (and current) Perú President Alan Garcia Perez’ mismanagement of the economy sent inflation spiraling upward to over 7000%.  Those who were hurt the hardest by the run-away inflation were the very poorest–the bottom 40% of Peru’s people who could barely afford food, and where the parents worked for twelve to fourteen hours a day, six days a week–a condition that only modestly improved with the ascent of Fujimori–but then instead of worrying about hunger they had to worry about civil war, being involuntarily sterilized, and if caught openly dissenting, being murdered by Fujimori’s paramilitary thugs who killed for the thrill of watching people die horrendously torturous deaths. Unfortunately the same who can now vote for Keiko had been deprived of that right for years:

Poverty under Alberto Fujimori (at present the poverty rate is c. 48%; source: CIA)

Forty years ago, illiterates were not able to vote, and in the department of Cusco only 5% of voting age voted. The poorest peasants and indigenous were illiterates and did not have representation, and in that case, Congress did not pass laws to benefit them. Now it has to do with barriers to entrance to political activity, a similar objective. [Hace cuarenta años los analfabetos no podían votar, con lo cual en el departamento del Cusco sólo votaba el 5% de la población en edad de votar. Los campesinos más pobres e indígenas que eran analfabetos no tenían representación, con lo cual el congreso no pasaba leyes que los pueda beneficiar. Hoy se trata de erigir barreras de entrada a la actividad política, con un objetivo parecido. { http://grancomboclub.com/2009/04/combitos-supa-mariategui.html}]  

Racism in Peru (the banner reads: Stop the racism so that Perú can be one)

They will support Keiko on election-day because of their own crimes of greed.  The blatant racism of the Fujimori family and the Fujimoristas in Congress is no secret, but publicly known, and it is this racism that will push another fascist into the eternally corrupt presidency of Perú where beer is openly served and consumed contrary to the laws that are neither remembered nor enforced as everyone from judges to police are open to graft and extortion (http://vivirlatino.com/2009/05/04/language-the-media-access-to-power-peruvian-congress-woman-hilaria-supa.php).

Keiko Fujimori bought votes by handing out bags of rice May 2011

Keiko claims she is not a carbon copy of her father, but her speeches expose the lie that she issues daily. Keiko belches the same campaign promises that worked for her father: fighting crime (and hiring the former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who took credit for fighting crime in New York City which had already fallen under his predecessor, and it and poverty remained basically constant during his reign of terror on the rights of workers), working for the poor and providing school lunches and uniforms.  To this end, breaking the laws of Perú, Keiko was frequently photographed handing out rice to the poor in exchange for their votes (http://livinginperu.com/news-14834-2011-elections-keiko%e2%80%99s-campaigners-distribute-food-for-runoff-support-reveals-email The newspaper El Mundo a national newspaper reported on May 11, 2011: “Keiko Fujimori’s campaign team follows the same electoral strategy applied by her father to win an election: populist welfare.  As in the nineties, Fujimori’s sympathizers want to exchange votes for rice, lentils, sugar and canned milked, products that are a luxury in the periphery areas of Lima due to its high prices”).

Alberto Fujimori's private prison

The fact that Keiko remains in daily contact with her father was revealed by La Republica. They show two of Keiko Fujimori’s campaign trucks appearing to enter and leave the police compound where Alberto Fujimori lives in relative comfort as the sole inmate and protected around the clock with a select group of trained military and a house staff that even prepares special meals. The prison is equipped with a television and other creature comforts no other prisoners and any other Perú prison possess or have access to using or enjoying. (read:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43114531/; also cp. http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/096/article_60121.asp).

While Keiko promises that all Peruanos deserve a quality education in Perú, she and her siblings took their education in the USA at the expense of Perú, with Kenji opting for Kansas (he was never a stellar student) while the rest of the Fujimori family went to New York (http://www.asocamerlat.org/chasqui13_agosto2010.htm).  It was for this reason that Keiko is still under investigation for “illicit enrichment”: having her tuition paid  illegally by the government of her father Alberto (Cuando el fujimorismo pensaba que gracias a la decisión del fiscal Jaime Schwartz se habían limpiado los obstáculos judiciales para la candidatura presidencial de su agrupación, la fiscal de la Nación Gladys Echaíz optó por abrirle una investigación preliminar a Keiko Fujimori por enriquecimiento ilícito. A pesar de todas las críticas, es una decisión correcta.

”]El camino judicial seguido por este caso es extenso y complejo, y no es necesario reseñarlo en una columna de un diario como La República que es el medio que le ha dado mayor cobertura al mismo en un contexto en el que este asunto no pareciera interesarle a la mayoría del periodismo local. [At the same time she claimed she sold property for more than $650,000 in 1998: Keiko dijo que los costos se pagaron con los 650 mil dólares que cobró por la venta de un inmueble en 1998, but by that date Keiko and her brother Hiro had already graduated. The money was put into an account with Citibank account belonging to Keiko’s brother Kenyi (Kenji) and not transferred to any U.S. university; however, the money was transferred to an account belong to their uncle Victor Aritomi who maintained funds with the

Keiko's finances investigated by La República

Banco do Brasil.  The uncle Victor Aritomi is currently another Fujimori fugitive from justice: Keiko dijo que los costos se pagaron con los 650 mil dólares que cobró por la venta de un inmueble en 1998. Pero para esa fecha Keiko y su hermano Hiro ya se habíanb graduado. La cifra que correpondía a Sechi pasó a una cuenta de CITIBANK y no se transfirió a ninguna universidad de EEUU. Y el monto que le tocó a Kenyi pasó a una cuenta de su tío Víctor Aritomi, del Banco do Brasil, otro prófugo de la justicia] (Read: http://elperuanoaldia.blogspot.com/2010/08/las-mentiras-de-keiko-fujimori.html).

Article on Chief of Security Montesinos and Keiko Fujimori (La República)

En resumen, el fiscal Schwartz dispuso archivar el caso por peculado y enriquecimiento ilícito, pero la procuraduría anticorrupción apeló, ante lo cual el fiscal superior Jorge Luis Cortez acogió la apelación y declaró nula la resolución en el extremo de enriquecimiento ilícito. Entonces, Schwartz modificó su resolución y elevó el expediente a la fiscal de la Nación, quien decidió, el 15 de julio pasado, abrirle la investigación preliminar a Keiko Fujimori por enriquecimiento ilícito. (Read: La República, domingo 25/ 07/ 2010, p. 3.)

Comprensiblemente, el fujimorismo respondió piteando contra dicha decisión. Entre los argumentos utilizados están que el tema ya fue ampliamente investigado, que en la investigación se comprende a Keiko Fujimori, quien –señalan– no era funcionaria, y a sus hermanos, o que los hijos no tienen por qué indagar sobre el origen de los fondos con que sus padres pagan sus estudios. En general, el fujimorismo ha acusado a la fiscal Echaíz de actuar con una motivación política para mellar la candidatura presidencial de Keiko Fujimori.

La fiscal Echaíz ha rechazado con energía esa versión, y ha justificado su iniciativa al explicar que “Keiko Fujimori nunca fue investigada por enriquecimiento ilícito. No se reabre ningún caso, esta será la primera vez que es investigada en forma preliminar, lo que no es igual a ser denunciada”.

Attorney José Ugaz

Es comprensible, como ha sostenido el abogado José Ugaz, que Keiko Fujimori sienta malestar por la decisión de Echaíz, pero la posición de la fiscal es fundamentalmente correcta y debe ayudar a dilucidar las responsabilidades que correspondan, lo cual debe realizarse con toda diligencia y al margen de cualquier consideración de índole política.
Lo que, en cambio, no es muy comprensible es el sólido respaldo ofrecido a Keiko Fujimori por personas que perdieron la oportunidad de quedar mejor quedándose calladas, como el presidente del Poder Judicial, Javier Villa Stein, o el premier Javier Velásquez Quesquén; at http://www.asocamerlat.org/chasqui13_agosto2010.htm) with tales of other extravagances and criminal acts (the theft of the silver from Paititi {http://cesaraching.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/kenya-y-keiko-fujimori-y-el-robo-del-oro-del-paititi/; http://arthuride.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/paititi-and-fujimori-corruption-theft-and-murder-in-peru/, and http://arthuride.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/keiko-sophia-fujimori-to-be-president-of-peru/; cf. http://herbertmujicarojas.lamula.pe/2010/10/13/kenya-y-keiko-fujimori-y-el-robo-del-oro-del-paititi and  http://arthuride.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/alberto-keiko-fujimoris-war-on-democracy-in-peru/}).