{"id":141986,"date":"2017-12-26T21:06:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T02:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=141986"},"modified":"2017-12-26T21:06:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T02:06:03","slug":"former-peruvian-president-apologizes-following-pardon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/26\/former-peruvian-president-apologizes-following-pardon\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Peruvian president apologizes following pardon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alberto<\/a>
Alberto Fujimori of Peru (Photo By Gobierno Peruano – http:\/\/www4.congreso.gob.pe\/comisiones\/1999\/ciencia\/perspecti.htm%7C, CC0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LIMA, Peru\u2014 Former President Alberto Fujimori apologized to Peruvians on Tuesday for the wrongs committed under his government in the 1990s, issuing a vaguely worded statement two days after he received a presidential medical pardon that freed him from prison.<\/p>\n

The 79-year-old Fujimori spoke in a videotaped message from a hospital in the capital. He received the pardon after serving less than half of a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

“I am aware that the results during my government were well received on one side, but I recognize that I have let down other compatriots,” he said. “To them, I ask for forgiveness with all my heart.”<\/p>\n

Fujimori had not previously apologized, asserting even during his sentencing hearing that he was innocent. He led the country in 1990-2000 and was found guilty for the killings of 25 people in a campaign against the leftist Shining Path terrorist group.<\/p>\n

“He has to ask forgiveness from his victims, from the families of those who were lost, who can’t spend Christmas with their families,” Marisa Glave, a member of parliament, said on local television network America.<\/p>\n

Fujimori, who has been diagnosed with arrhythmia and tongue cancer, also thanked President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for pardoning him and sparing him from serving another 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The decision, which was announced on Christmas Eve, sparked large protests across the country on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

The president said Fujimori was being let go for humanitarian reasons, but many believe it was part of a backroom deal struck to protect Kuczynski from impeachment on corruption charges. Human Rights Watch declared it a “vulgar political negotiation.”<\/p>\n

Abstentions by lawmakers from a party led by Fujimori’s son allowed Kuczynski to narrowly avoid being impeached late Thursday over a payment that his consulting firm received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has been accused of bribing public officials throughout Latin America.<\/p>\n

A U.N. official said Tuesday that Peru’s president should not have acted alone in granting the pardon.<\/p>\n

Amerigo Incalcaterra, the South America representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted in a statement that the U.N. told Kuczynski’s government in October that the seriousness of Fujimori’s crimes warranted involvement of the international community in deciding on any pardon.<\/p>\n

Such a pardon “requires a rigorous analysis in each case, considering the gravity of the facts in the framework of a transparent and inclusive process, in the light of international human rights standards,” Incalcaterra wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIMA, Peru\u2014 Former President Alberto Fujimori apologized to Peruvians on Tuesday for the wrongs committed under his government in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":141988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[40524,40525],"class_list":["post-141986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","tag-former-peruvian-president-apologizes-following-pardon","tag-former-president-alberto-fujimori","mauthors-franklin-briceno","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}