ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Clinton adminstration’s policy making toward Peru and the Alberto Fujimori government’s policy making toward the United States (US). Fujimori was a key actor for all policies on the US-Peruvian bilateral agenda. For some six years—between approximately 1993 and 1998—the commander in chief of the armed forces, General Nicolas de Bari Hermoza, was pivotal to various policies; indeed, during this period Fujimori, Vladimiro Montesinos, and Hermoza were dubbed the power “triumvirate” or “troika”. The events of Fujimori’s youth were unlikely to have endeared Peru to him. The changes in Fujimori’s circles of advisers is indicated by the annual Apoyo surveys among elite Peruvians about power in Peru. After Fujimori’s election, Montesinos sought an institutional base, which was to be the Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional. As Fujimori increased presidential power in foreign policy making, he concomitantly reduced the power of Peru’s foreign ministry.
