On 30 October Keiko Fujimori, the de-facto leader of the Peruvian right, announced her candidacy in the April 2026 presidential election.
Analysis:
This is Fujimori’s fourth run at the presidency, after she reached the run-off in 2011, 2016, and 2021. On the latter two occasions she lost by less than 0.3 percentage points. She will be hoping that widespread alarm over rising crime, particularly extortion, will provide her with the winning formula this time around. Fujimori yesterday vowed to crush criminal groups, although this will do little to distinguish her in a campaign that is set to be dominated by tough-on-crime candidates. Her speech yesterday suggested that she will lean into the legacy of her late father, authoritarian former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), who is lauded on the right for his ruthless counterinsurgency campaign against the Sendero Luminoso (SL) guerrilla movement but deplored on the left for the human rights abuses that characterised his presidency.
- Fujimori announced her candidacy at a rally in Trujillo, the capital of the north-western region of La Libertad – one of the regions most impacted by the growth of organised crime. She said that if elected she would govern in the style of her father, “with an iron fist”, and that “urban terrorism is not confronted with speeches, pretty words, or from offices – this damn violence needs to be fought in the streets, by bringing out the armed forces and using the intelligence services”. She said that “Fujimorismo will bring the authority that all Peruvians need”.
- Fujimori’s announcement comes after she was dealt a major reprieve in a money laundering case that has dogged her since 2018 and concerns allegedly illegal donations to her 2011 and 2016 campaigns from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. On 21 October the constitutional court (TC) dismissed the investigation, claiming that it had been flawed. This came after a judge threw out her trial in January this year and said that prosecutors should restart their investigation.
- Fujimori’s candidacy still needs to win the approval of her right-wing Fuerza Popular (FP) if her name is to appear on the ballot, although this is likely to be a formality.
- Meanwhile, new President José Jerí is also planning steps to curtail the power of organised crime. This is a political imperative for Jerí, who has no popular mandate and whose government is at the mercy of a hardline congress which impeached his predecessor, Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), for failing to get a grip on crime. Yesterday, the transport and communications ministry announced that it is evaluating whether mobile phone SIM cards could be linked with biometric data to clamp down on extortion.
- Security was also the main focus of a telephone call yesterday between Jerí and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to Tommy Pigott, deputy spokesperson at the US State Department, Rubio “stressed the importance of strengthening security cooperation and supporting Peru’s efforts to combat crime in our hemisphere”. He added that “both leaders agreed to continue close cooperation on shared priorities, including combating narco-trafficking and strengthening regional stability”.
Looking Ahead: Other candidates who have announced their presidential campaigns include far-right former mayor of Lima Rafael López Aliaga (2023-2025), who polls have named as the early frontrunner, and Mario Vizcarra, the brother of former president Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020) who is Mario’s running mate. Martín Vizcarra is barred from holding public office as he awaits trial for alleged corruption, although he has appealed to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) to overturn this ban.
