Nicole Ferand of the American Center for Security Policy offers a dissection of the recent Fujimori "trial," which appears to be the pursuit of civil war by other means:
"Last week, on April 7th 2009, former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for "ordering two (2) massacres" that left twenty five (25) people dead during his time in office from 1990 until 2000. [1] None of the trial's eighty (80) witnesses could implicate Fujimori of ordering any killings, kidnappings or disappearances. This was in spite of being constantly intimidated and pressured to do so by the prosecutors and even the judges, who offered to lessen their time in jail if they accused the former leader. These individuals simply could not; one after the other, even the star witnesses of the prosecution, the members of 'Grupo Colina' [2] who allegedly carried out the 'murders,' emphatically denied that Fujimori ordered them to carry out these actions; in fact they declared they never even met him. According to a recent opinion poll, two thirds of the population says that Fujimori was found guilty without any poof or evidence and local opinion leaders, experts and lawyers agree.
According to most legal experts, Fujimori was convicted even before he set foot in the courtroom..."
The likely outcome is that it will turn the upcoming election into a referendum on Fujimori. That may not lead to the political outcome that the judges are rooting for. It's a good example of where full politicization of the judiciary leads, at least in the initial stages.
It won't stop there, however. Ultimately, if the judiciary is used to enact a form of civil war by other means, the political consequence is that the civil war soon comes back to them; indeed, they become both targets in any shooting war, and an incitement to continuing shooting civil wars once they start. Once compromise and settlement are seen as just a tactical phase on the way to judicial with-hunts, any negotiated settlement short of one side's surrender becomes impermanent - and hence impossible. The longer-term fallout here will be worth watching.