Tokyo, by fax

Fujimori resigns the presidency from a hotel in Japan. The benefits of the bargain have been collected; the bill is being passed.

In November 2000, after the Vladi-videos surface and the regime's intelligence apparatus collapses publicly, Alberto Fujimori flies to an APEC summit in Brunei and continues on to Tokyo, from which he faxes his resignation to the Peruvian congress. He has held office for ten years. The homicide and Sendero-attack figures that legitimized him have arrived on schedule. The Barrios Altos and La Cantuta indictments have not. The costs of authoritarianism are back-loaded and the benefits front-loaded. The original bargain-makers cash out before the bill arrives — that asymmetry is what makes the deal politically irresistible to whoever happens to hold power during the crisis. Fujimori, in 2000, is the cleanest illustration of the asymmetry: he leaves before the accounting begins.