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
Alberto Fujimori perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government). During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period