Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, has been elected President of Peru. Leading the conservative party Fuerza Popular, she secured victory with 9,223,396 votes. Her opponent, Roberto Sánchez from Juntos por el Perú, received 9,173,755 votes, a narrow margin that shows a difference of nearly 50,000 votes.
At 50, Fujimori, who once served as First Lady during her father’s administration from 1990 to 2000 and as a congresswoman, succeeded in her fourth attempt at the presidency. She campaigned on restoring order, evoking memories of her father’s era when the military defeated the Shining Path insurgency.
“I decided to join this campaign because our country can no longer handle improvisation and is living in fear,”
she stated, closing her electoral campaign in Lima. Her platform focused on a tough approach to crime, modeled after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. Fujimori pledged to build a prison similar to El Salvador’s Center for Confinement of Terrorism and introduce masked judges, reminiscent of her father’s rule.
Peru is facing a rise in insecurity. Reports of extortion have increased fivefold, with murders doubling over the past five years, according to official data. Small business owners and public transport operators are primary targets, and in 2025 alone, 239 drivers were killed due to extortion. Fujimori has also proposed cutting bureaucratic red tape on major mining projects to draw investments and boost employment, alongside expanding irrigation for agro-exports along the Pacific coast’s arid lands.
Her critics argue that her ambitions have led to a political crisis over the past decade. They claim her parliamentary faction caused several presidential resignations or removals, including Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020), Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), and Dina Boluarte (2022-2025). Although her party initially protected Boluarte from seven removal requests, they ultimately voted for her vacancy when her popularity plummeted to 3%.
Fujimori previously ran for president in 2011, 2016, and 2021, reaching the run-offs but losing to Ollanta Humala, Kuczynski, and Castillo, respectively. Entering politics at 19, she became First Lady following her parents’ separation amid controversy, with allegations from her mother of being tortured by military orders from her father.
Alberto Fujimori passed away in 2024, a year after being released from prison where he served over 16 years for corruption and for command involvement in 25 killings during anti-insurgency operations between 1991 and 1992. Keiko launched her latest bid after the Constitutional Tribunal dismissed a money-laundering investigation related to the Brazilian company Odebrecht, citing a lack of legal basis since the acts were not punishable under prior laws.