Lima

As five Peruvian lawmakers stood wide-eyed on the ground at a military airport north of here in early March, a MIG-29 fighter jet crashed in a blazing ball of flame. The plane was being given a test flight as part of an investigation into whether a fleet of Russian-built MIGs bought in the 1990s from Belarus were defective and thus an elaborate ploy by the recently collapsed government of Alberto Fujimori to skim off millions of dollars in kickbacks. The plumes of black smoke rising from the debris confirmed the congressional committee's worst fears.

The pilot of the plane escaped unhurt. But with presidential elections set for April 8, just how Peru itself will survive the wreckage of the past decade of Fujimori's authoritarian rule remains an open question.

Whatever government arises from the vote, at least it won't have to face the onerous tasks that have plagued postdictatorial administrations in Chile and Argentina. Peruvians won't have to navigate through official walls of silence, nor will they have to sift through unmarked graves to unearth the record of the past ten years. They'll be saved those tedious labors because as Fujimori was absconding to Japan last November, his regime was thoughtful enough to leave behind a full video record of the calamities it visited upon the 26 million people who live in Peru. "Every night now is a special night on Peruvian TV," says Marco Zileri, editor of the weekly Caretas. "The Vladi videos are the new form of national entertainment, national fascination--and national shame."

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