For years people have accused Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of running a brutal and authoritarian government right out of a dictator's textbook. But last week Fujimori's regime morphed from a monolith into a weird, militarized soap opera, and it seemed no one, perhaps not even Fujimori, understood how the plot was unfolding. Was the President still running the show? Was he resigning, as he suddenly promised? Would he, as he declared, really clean up the thuggish security apparatus that had done so much to blacken his administration's name? Would the nation's powerful military back him or revolt?
Fujimori tried to cast...