King for More Than a Day

“He put it by thrice,” it was said of Julius Caesar when offered the crown.

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori apparently has no such compunctions. Elected in 1990, he rode into office on a wave of popularity based on his declared intentions--subsequently carried out--to rebuild the economy, crush the violent Shining Path guerrilla movement and staunch the country’s corrupting drug traffic.

Under the Peruvian constitution, Fujimori had just one shot, a single five-year term, to achieve his aims. In his successful pursuit of those goals, say political detractors and even some supporters, he exercised a highly authoritarian manner.

In 1992 Fujimori disbanded the congress after it questioned his leadership. Then he stacked the new congress with his followers, and it promptly, and not surprisingly, changed the law of the land in 1993 to give the president the opportunity to run for a second term. Astride that opportunity, Fujimori won reelection.

Now the Fujimori faction says that since the second term was approved under a new constitution, the formula begins anew, meaning the president should be able to run for still another “second term” in the year 2000. Of course he would have to win at the polls, but that could prove to be within easy reach of his resourceful political machine.