Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America

Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America. By Charles D. Kenney. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004. 379p. $60.00 cloth, $30.00 paper.In this book on Peruvian politics, Charles Kenney leaves few stones unturned in analyzing the various factors that led to the suspension of the country's constitution and the disbanding of the legislature by President Alberto Fujimori in April 1992. While I am not entirely convinced that this particular episode in Peruvian politics warrants the book-length treatment that it has received here, Kenney has done a commendable job of locating Peru's “autogolpe” (or civilian-inflicted coup) within the broader literature on the breakdown of democratic regimes in Latin America.