LIMA--Former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori sought forgiveness from Peruvians "from the bottom of my heart" on Tuesday for shortcomings during his rule, and thanked President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for granting him a Christmas pardon.
In a video on Facebook, Fujimori, 79, vowed that as a free man, he would support Kuczynski's call for reconciliation, hinting that he would not return to politics.
"I'm aware the results of my government were well received by some, but I acknowledge I also disappointed other compatriots," the ailing Fujimori said, reading from notes while connected to tubes in a hospital bed. "And to them, I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart."
The remarks were Fujimori's first explicit apology to the Andean nation that he governed with an iron fist from 1990-2000. They came after two days of unrest as protesters slammed the pardon as an insult to victims and part of a political deal to help Kuczynski survive a scandal.
The pardon cleared Fujimori's convictions for graft and human rights crimes during his leadership of the rightwing government. Late on Monday, Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, appealed to Peruvians opposed to the pardon to "turn the page" and defended his decision as justified clemency for a sick man whose government helped the country progress.
"I cannot keep from expressing my profound gratitude for the complex step that the president took, which commits me in this new stage of my life to decidedly support his call for reconciliation," Fujimori said.
The pardon has pitched Kuczynski's center-right government into a fresh political crisis less than a week after Congress nearly removed him from office in the wake of a graft scandal. Earlier on Monday, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds in downtown Lima in a second day of unrest, while a third lawmaker announced he was abandoning Kuczynski's political party.
Fujimori, who like Kuczynski is 79, is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending a severe economic crisis and quashing a leftist rebellion during his decade in power.
The pardon cleared Fujimori of convictions for graft and human rights crimes, 12 years into a 25-year prison sentence. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker, reiterated that the pardon was a response to fears that Fujimori might die in prison. But - for the first time since running for office a year ago - he also defended Fujimori's decade in power.
"It's clear his government, which inherited a country submerged in a violent and chaotic crisis at the start of the 1990s, incurred in significant legal transgressions regarding democracy and human rights. But I also think his government contributed to national progress," Kuczynski said in a televised address.
The remarks placed Kuczynski more firmly on Fujimori's side of Peru's biggest political faultline, and triggered a fresh wave of criticism of Kuczynski from Fujimori's foes. "You've got to be pretty stingy, President Kuczynski, to not say a word of solidarity for the victims and their loved ones," Gisela Ortiz, a Peruvian human rights activist, said on Twitter after his speech.
Just a week ago, Kuczynski fanned fears of a new rise of Fujimori's rightwing movement, denouncing its bid to remove him from office as a legislative "coup" attempt that threatened Peru's democracy. Many of Fujimori's detractors, who helped Kuczynski win last year's runoff election, joined Kuczynski in calling for lawmakers to defeat the "presidential vacancy" motion.
But it was a rebel faction among Fujimori's supporters in Congress which unexpectedly saved Kuczynski from the vote, fueling speculation that it was part of a deal to trade votes for a pardon for Fujimori. "The pardon's for President Kuczynski, it's not for Fujimori," leftist lawmaker Marisa Glave said on local TV channel Canal N.
