Why the Self-Coup? Fujimori and Congress, 1990-1992

Abstract

Starting from the premise that the troubled relationship between the executive and legislative branches were highly relevant, though not the only determinants of Fujimori’s presidential coup of April 1992, the author asks whether Fujimori and his advisor had planned it since the moment he took power in June 1990 or if it was a contingent decision whose election depended on the course of events. Though he concludes that the information and data presented can’t confirm that happened the first, he is able to state that: 1) a rational actor in Fujimori´s situation in 1990 could have foreseen to dissolve the House of Representatives before 1995 and that the mechanism provided in the Constitution to do it was useless, and 2) that conflicts between the legislative and executive led both sides to exceed constitutional limits in force.
Keywords: Peru – presidential coup – Fujimori – democracy – branches balance