Alberto Fujimori governed Peru from 1990 to 2000 with the particular blend of authoritarianism and entrepreneurial corruption that makes historians reach for superlatives. Death squads, forced sterilization of Indigenous women, bribing opposition politicians on videotape — the man was thorough. He eventually resigned by fax from Japan, which remains one of history's more cowardly exits. Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the carnage. He was extradited from Chile in 2007, convicted in 2009, and handed a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption — later combined with additional convictions totaling over 50 years. Then, in a touching Christmas Eve gesture in 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned him on humanitarian grounds, roughly three days after Fujimori's daughter Keiko had conveniently allowed Kuczynski to survive an impeachment vote. Kuczynski himself later resigned in a scandal involving — you guessed it — Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. As for Keiko, she was jailed in 2018 awaiting trial for accepting $1.2 million in Odebrecht bribes, released, jailed again, released again, and by July 2024 was standing trial facing up to 30 years in prison. In 2026 she reportedly won the presidency. Peru's voters: doing their best.