Salesman Carlos Castillo still shudders at the rebel car bomb that sprayed glass from his apartment's windows over his children.
He hasn't forgotten the hyperinflation that ate away his salary by the minute, and he remembers living in fear as Peru teetered on the verge of anarchy.His savior arrived through the ballot box in 1990 with the election of Alberto Fujimori as president.
Wielding the iron hand that won him the nickname "The Emperor," Fujimori shut down Peru's hostile Congress and corrupt judicial system, imposed drastic economic restructuring and gave the military free rein to crush leftist rebels. Peruvians re-elected him in a landslide in 1995.
"He made Peru livable again. Maybe a full democracy works in the United States, but not here, not yet. We need someone strong or else there is chaos," said Castillo, 37, who lives near Lima's Tarata Street, where a car bomb killed 21 people and wounded 168 in 1992.
As democracy lays down roots from Mexico to Argentina, Latin Americans sick of rampant corruption and crime are voting for authoritarian figures, even former dictators, in hopes of restoring order.
In Venezuela, a former paratrooper who tried to overthrow an elected government in 1992 has a strong lead heading into the Dec. 6 presidential election. Retired Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez has broad support among poor Venezuelans sick of corrupt and ineffective politicians.
"Go ahead, call me a coup leader," Chavez bellowed at a recent campaign rally. "Raise your hands if you think the coup was justified."
A sea of hands went up.
Last year, Bolivians voted back to power a former dictator who promised "a war against poverty, corruption and injustice." Gen. Hugo Banzer, who led a military regime accused of human rights abuses in 1971-78, won the vote narrowly and formed a coalition government.
Despite the abuses, many Bolivians remember Banzer's government as a period of relative political and economic stability.
In Paraguay, a former armed forces commander who in 1996 rebelled against President Juan Carlos Wasmosy held a wide lead in opinion polls before last May's presidential election, but the Supreme Court blocked his candidacy.
Some Latin Americans recall past dictatorships as providing higher living standards and streets that were safe to walk at night.
"There is a nostalgia for the security of authoritarianism in some sectors, especially in countries where democratic institutions are new or shaky," said retired Gen. Jaime Salinas, director of the Lima-based Latin American Institute of Civil/Military Studies.
A 1998 U.S. government study of global political attitudes found widespread support for the idea of democracy in Latin America.
But it also found that most Latin Americans were unhappy with their own countries' democracies.
"The large majority of Latin Americans want democracy. But if they perceive it as threatening their security or economic well-being, many will look to the barracks," Salinas said.
Elected leaders in Latin America often use sweeping executive powers to bypass hostile congresses and courts, arguing they impede efforts to develop the country.
In Argentina, which emerged from a seven-year military dictatorship in 1983, critics accuse President Carlos Menem of trampling democratic procedures by using emergency decrees to bypass congressional opposition. When Congress blocked his plan to sell 33 state-owned airports, for example, Menem privatized them by decree.
In Peru, Fujimori reportedly governs in an alliance with the armed forces and the feared National Intelligence Service, overriding democratic institutions that get in his way.
The Fujimori-controlled Congress disbanded Peru's top constitutional court after it ruled he could not run for a third term in 2000.
"He rules like the European kings of the 16th century. He controls everything and accepts little dissent," said Luis Jochamowitz, author of the biography "Citizen Fujimori." "A lot of the region's leaders look at him with envy."