Justice for Peruvians
Today, the leader of Peru during the 1990s, Alberto Fujimori, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for organising massacres, torture, and mass “disappearances”. This is a great step forward in the idea of global justice. It is impressive that a leader has been successfully convicted despite doing things such as reforming the economy according to the neo-liberal values of the IMF (which would usually mean a successful and satisfying retirement for leaders like Fujimori who support the values of the major Western powers. I hope we see more successful cases like this in the future for the thousands of major human rights violators around the world who go unchallenged.
As Amnesty International puts it, Fujimori was responsible for “human rights violations such as torture, kidnapping and enforced disappearances”. I have to point out that George Bush and his administration were guilty of all these charges during their eight years in power and, as I have highlighted in the past, should be brought to trial. I hope the case of Fujimori serves as a warning to abusive leaders around the world, as well as encouragement to jurors who fear the amount of organisation and time needed to bring a case like this this won’t come to nothing.
