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Chile Arrests Former Peruvian President

Peru`s fugitive former president, Alberto Fujimori, was arrested early Monday in Chile, where he had arrived unexpectedly in an attempt to return to Peru to resurrect his political career. Instead, Peruvian officials began working to have him extradited on charges of murder and corruption committed during his decade-long presidency.

Fujimori, 67, who fled to Japan after a corruption scandal toppled his government in 2000, recently stated his intention to defy an international arrest warrant and return to Peru to run for president in 2006. Fujimori was elected president in 1990, after a decade of violent insurgency, and he ruled the Andean nation with an authoritarian hand. Under a growing cloud, he was driven from office in 2000. Peru`s Congress later prohibited him from holding public office until at least 2011.

For the past two years, Peru has unsuccessfully lobbied for Fujimori`s deportation from Japan, which granted him citizenship because of his Japanese ancestry. He landed in a private plane in Santiago, the Chilean capital, Sunday afternoon and was arrested by Chilean officials without resisting at the Marriott Hotel early Monday morning.