Peru, 2000 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 29 October 2000 Lieutenant Colonel Ollanta Humala led the Locumba uprising, a military revolt against President Alberto Fujimori of Peru in the final, collapsing days of his corruption riddled regime. Fujimori's rule was disintegrating after the September 2000 exposure of a video showing his intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos bribing an opposition congressman, a scandal that shattered the government. On 29 October, Humala, together with several dozen soldiers from the Arica barracks near Locumba in southern Peru, rose in rebellion, denouncing Montesinos and demanding accountability.

The uprising was small and quickly petered out, most of the soldiers deserting until only a handful remained, and it was militarily insignificant, but it captured public sympathy amid the national revulsion at the regime's corruption. Notably, Montesinos himself later claimed the revolt had actually served as a diversion covering his own flight from the country by boat that same day. Fujimori fled Peru three weeks later, resigning by fax from Japan, and a transitional government took over.

Humala and his men were pardoned, and the uprising launched his political career, culminating in his election as president in 2011.