September 24, 2007

Fujimori Handed Over to Peru

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Last Friday, Chile’s Supreme Court ruled to extradite former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to face charges of corruption, and more importantly, human rights violations in Peru. Within a day of the decision, authorities packed Fujimori into a helicopter and flew him to the airport, from where he was shuttled off to Lima. This is pretty stunning considering every indication from Chile’s high court could have predicted exactly the opposite and that it is not unlike a South American court to let one of its leaders get away with, well, murder. But Chile’s unprecedented ruling might just change the game.

News reports indicate that Chile’s full Supreme Court lost its nerve after initially deciding to reject Fujimori’s extradition, but what’s really important here is that for the first time in modern history a domestic court of a sovereign nation has returned a dictator to face the people he abused. I definitely didn’t see this one coming.

—Rafael Valero

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