Even from the jail cell where he is serving a 25-year sentence for embezzling public funds and directing death squads, ex-President Alberto Fujimori continues to cast a long shadow over Peru.<\/p>\n
A high-profile campaign, backed by many media here, for a humanitarian pardon appears set to reach its climax in the coming weeks as the current president, Ollanta Humala, finally reviews a medical report on his disgraced predecessor.<\/p>\n
Fujimori\u2019s family and supporters are demanding the 74-year-old former leader be released due to alleged ill health and have repeatedly called for \u201ccompassion\u201d from Humala.<\/p>\n
In Peru, humanitarian pardons are often given to terminally ill prisoners with just a few weeks to live.<\/p>\n
Fujimori, whose hard-right 1990-2000 presidency continues to polarize Peruvians, has had several minor operations to treat cancerous lesions on his tongue, which first cropped up while he was in his office.<\/p>\n
But according to recent leaks of the medical report, he is now clear of the cancer.<\/p>\n
However, the document is said to conclude that he does suffer from depression, with five psychiatrists on the medical team split over how serious his condition was.<\/p>\n
Humala has remained inscrutable, giving no indication of his likely decision. He recently said he would not bow to any \u201cpressures\u201d regarding the pardon, one of his few public comments on a story that has barely slipped off Peru\u2019s front pages for six months.<\/p>\n
That could be interpreted as a slap in the face for Fujimori\u2019s supporters \u2014 but it might also have been aimed at the human rights and democracy activists who opposed the former president\u2019s authoritarian ways when he was in power and now argue he should remain behind bars.<\/p>\n
A one-time leftist army officer who famously led a revolt against Fujimori\u2019s election-fixing in 2000, President Humala has since drifted rightward and, without a congressional majority, may be reluctant to alienate the \u201cFujimorista\u201d grouping, the second largest in congress.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, prominent representatives, including the former leader\u2019s daughter Keiko and son Kenji Fujimori, insist their father’s life is in danger as long as he remains in jail.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that the cancerous cells have been extirpated doesn\u2019t mean that the cancer will not return,\u201d Keiko Fujimori, who narrowly lost a presidential runoff election to Humala in 2011, said in a radio interview in response to the medical report.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally, to be able to say that a cancer has been cured, 10 years have to pass, which is not the case with my father,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
That view has received predictably short shrift from the relatives of the victims of Fujimori\u2019s death squads. The victims were suspected members of the Shining Path rebel group, although many turned out to have nothing to do with the uber-violent revolutionaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message that a pardon would send could hardly be more serious. What are we saying, that it no longer matters who you kill or rob, that you will be rewarded?\u201d Gisela Ortiz told GlobalPost.<\/p>\n