Captured Desires: Neoliberalism from Below in Fujimori's Peru

For more than three decades, many of the most impoverished Peruvians have been consistent champions of Alberto Fujimori, the right-wing autocrat who inaugurated the neoliberal era in Peru. Just as many today are drawn to the likes of Donald Trump or Javier Milei, in the 1990s the so-called fujimoristas saw in their leader’s neoliberal government the solutions to escape a traumatic period of crisis. However, in common academic and activist narratives – in Peru as elsewhere – the neoliberal turn was simply imposed from above by a combination of foreign diktats, authoritarianism and repression. That is only half the picture, obscuring the complex ideas and incentives of large sections of the working classes and mystifying why neoliberalism has proven so remarkably enduring. In this thesis, I argue the neoliberal turn cannot be properly understood without examining neoliberalism from below, the variegated processes through which the working classes (re)produce neoliberalism. In the context of the conjunctural crisis of Fordism, when existing forms of capitalism were terminally delegitimised, elite neoliberals identified and exploited the working classes’ unmet desires for peace, progress and recognition. For some working-class people, neoliberalism came to seem tolerable – and sometimes even desirable – after its alternatives were exhausted. They were constrained by many factors but nonetheless exercised agency when choosing to support the neoliberal turn. This is what cemented the durable hegemony of neoliberalism, and what remains the hardest obstacle in the path to its replacement. I make this argument through a detailed analysis of fujimorismo, the neoliberal movement which arose in Peru during Fujimori’s rule (1990-2000). Drawing on three dozen interviews, mostly with working-class Peruvians, Fujimori’s memoirs and other primary sources, I examine how Fujimori and his working-class followers co-constructed Peruvian neoliberalism. When Fujimori won the presidential elections of 1990, Peru was deep into a crisis caused by the limits of state-led developmentalism and an internal armed conflict between the state and communist insurgents. The legal left was imploding after failing to articulate a coherent response. The neoliberal right had crafted a compelling message targeted at the informal working class. Fujimori used this message to engineer neoliberalism from below. He oversaw the end of hyperinflation and the defeat of the insurgents. His solutions were viewed by many working-class Peruvians as brutally effective. He went on to develop sophisticated social assistance policies, creating clientelist networks while interpellating neoliberal subjects. This was coupled with an identity politics providing real, if limited, recognition to oppressed groups, especially women and indigenous people. Motivated by disappointment with the alternatives and long-standing desires for peace, progress and recognition, many working-class Peruvians drove the neoliberal turn. Even after Fujimori’s fall in 2000, many remain bent on reproducing, rather than replacing, neoliberalism. These findings reframe the history of the neoliberal turn in and beyond Latin America, emphasising the importance of consent alongside coercion. They illuminate the allure and the limits of neoliberalism’s politics of social assistance and recognition. More generally, these findings help answer the old question of why those oppressed and exploited so often choose not to end their own oppression and exploitation. The oppressed and exploited are not always already on one or the other side. Progressive forces have to fight over ideology and interest simultaneously while taking advantage of the opportunities provided by crises.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Shimabukuro Cabrera, Rafael-Andres

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mendes Loureiro, Pedro

• neoliberalism
• fujimorismo
• Peru

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1d551a59-f127-4f35-a60f-cd1787eb95ba/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.124217

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/394146