{"id":2133,"date":"2018-10-11T00:22:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T00:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2018-10-11T00:22:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T00:22:18","slug":"peru-opposition-leader-keiko-fujimori-is-arrested-in-corruption-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/10\/11\/peru-opposition-leader-keiko-fujimori-is-arrested-in-corruption-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Peru Opposition Leader Keiko Fujimori Is Arrested in Corruption Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">LA PAZ, Bolivia \u2014 Keiko Fujimori, a powerful Peruvian politician whose father ruled the country in the 1990s, was arrested in a money laundering investigation on Wednesday, calling into question the future of the political family and their right-wing populist movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">The arrest came just days after the country\u2019s Supreme Court ordered her father, former President Alberto Fujimori,\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/10\/03\/world\/peru-alberto-fujimori.html?module=inline\">back to prison<\/a>\u00a0on a human rights abuse conviction, overruling the presidential pardon that had freed him in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori was detained at the chief prosecutor\u2019s office, where she had been called to testify in her own case, said her lawyer, Giuliana Loza, who called the arrest \u201carbitrary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Prosecutors have been investigating whether Ms. Fujimori, the opposition leader, accepted illegal campaign contributions during her 2011 and 2016 presidential campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">About 100 of her supporters gathered at the courthouse to protest her arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori, who is considered a flight risk, will initially be held for at least 10 days while prosecutors consider filing formal charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">In a letter that she posted on Twitter on Wednesday, she denounced her arrest as unfair. \u201cPersecution is disguised as justice in our country,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<div class=\"StoryBodyCompanionColumn css-p1yi70\">\n<div class=\"css-4w7y5l\">\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">The arrest orders for Ms. Fujimori and her father are a dramatic turn of events for one of Peru\u2019s most powerful families, which governed Peru in the 1990s with a brand of right-wing populism they were seeking to reestablish in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori\u2019s father was elected president in 1990 before he suspended the country\u2019s Constitution and ruled as a dictator. Though sent to jail on charges that he had been involved in the murder of at least 25 people during those years, Mr. Fujimori remained deeply popular among many Peruvians as his administration was also credited with improving the economy, investing in infrastructure and defeating left-wing groups that engaged in bloody conflict with the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-13jtjmc\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ResponsiveAd-adSlug--3H3QM\">\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori has become one of Peru\u2019s most powerful politicians, commanding the Popular Force party, which controls the largest share of seats in the country\u2019s Congress. Many analysts feared that her rise \u2014 which included an attempt to impeach Peru\u2019s previous president, who eventually resigned \u2014 would do lasting damage to the country\u2019s democratic institutions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">The recent detentions of Ms. Fujimori and her father have now led some to believe that the opposite may be true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">\u201cI think it\u2019s a major point of weakening for Fujimorismo,\u201d said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, referring to the political movement that bears the family name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori has been the subject of a number of corruption investigations in recent years, including inquiries into her campaign financing, accusations of money laundering and questions regarding her ties to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has admitted paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes for construction projects in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Public anger turned against both Ms. Fujimori and investigators this July, when tapes in which judicial officials could be heard planning unofficial meetings with a \u201cSe\u00f1ora K\u201d were leaked to the press. Critics said that the nickname referred to Ms. Fujimori and that the officials were looking to cut an illicit deal with her. The ensuing scandal resulted in the firing and resignation of many top judiciary officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Mr. Dargent, the political scientist, said prosecutors were now under increased pressure to show that they are clean of political influence \u2014 a possible motivation for Wednesday\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">There have been other signs of weakness within Ms. Fujimori\u2019s party, and within the family, in recent months. In local elections on Sunday, voters shut the party out of most mayoral offices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori split with her brother, Kenji Fujimori, a former congressman, over an impeachment attempt against former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/12\/24\/world\/americas\/alberto-fujimori-peru-pardoned.html?module=inline\">pardoned their father<\/a>\u00a0in an attempt to avoid being ousted from office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xl4flh e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Fujimori led a second push to impeach Mr. Kuczynski this March,\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/21\/world\/americas\/peru-kuczynski-resigns.html?module=inline\">resulting in his resignation<\/a>\u00a0and further estrangement from her brother, who had supported the former president. Their Popular Force party has been split since.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LA PAZ, Bolivia \u2014 Keiko Fujimori, a powerful Peruvian politician whose father ruled the country in the 1990s, was arrested in a money laundering investigation on Wednesday, calling into question the future of the political family and their right-wing populist movement. The arrest came just days after the country\u2019s Supreme Court ordered her father, former President Alberto Fujimori,\u00a0back to prison\u00a0on&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/10\/11\/peru-opposition-leader-keiko-fujimori-is-arrested-in-corruption-inquiry\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-ny-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2134,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}