The octogenarian former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori presents an “improvement” in his health after five days of being hospitalized for heart problems in a Lima clinic, his personal doctor reported Tuesday.
“Until Saturday, the president felt very complicated, they had him very sedated to be able to get his heart into a good rhythm, but yesterday (Monday) we saw some improvement,” Alejandro Aguinaga told the press.
“We hope that this improvement can continue, especially in the case of an older person who is about to turn 84 years old,” he said.
Fujimori was hospitalized in an emergency last Thursday, after suffering a cardiac crisis at the police base where he has been serving a 25-year prison sentence since 2007 for the death of 25 people in two massacres. Both were perpetrated by a death squad of the Peruvian army in alleged anti-terrorist operations during his government (1990-2000).
Of Japanese origin, Fujimori decompensated on Thursday, forcing him to be taken to the nearest health center by ambulance, fearing for his life, according to his relatives. He was then transferred to the intermediate care unit of a private clinic.
President Pedro Castillo’s chief of staff, Aníbal Torres, said last Friday that “ex-president Fujimori is duly cared for” like the rest of the inmates. He, however, reiterated the possibility of transferring him to a common prison “when he heals” to end what he described as a “golden prison.”
Fujimori recurrently suffers from respiratory and neurological problems (facial paralysis) and hypertension.
The eldest daughter and opposition leader Keiko Fujimori denounced last October that the government’s announcements to transfer her father from prison, as part of a policy to put an end to the privileged treatment of some prisoners in “golden prisons”, influenced the deterioration of his father’s health.
