Alberto Fujimori opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet. Modleing his rule after Pinochet Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this nickname. According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian. In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces, with "Financial Times" stating
Pardon of Alberto Fujimori the former President due to a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". On 23 December, Fujimori was transferred from the Diroes prison to a clinic. On 24 December, the Press Office of the Presidential Office announced the pardon of Alberto Fujimori through a press release. The same day, Kuczynski signed R.S. No. 281-2017-JUS., granting Fujimori "pardon and right of grace for humanitarian reasons within the Barbadillo Penitentiary Establishment". On 25 December, in the face of protests against the pardon, Kuczysnki released a Message to the Nation, asking people to not "get carried away by hate" nor to allow the former President