LIMA, July 28, (v7n) – Peru's right-wing president-elect Keiko Fujimori will take office on Tuesday, vowing to tackle the wave of crime sweeping the Andean nation after winning the June 7 presidential runoff by fewer than 50,000 votes—her victory coming after losing the past three runoffs.
The 51-year-old faced leftist Roberto Sanchez in the runoff, with her campaign shadowed by the divisive legacy of her father Alberto Fujimori, who ruled Peru in the 1990s and was later jailed for corruption and crimes against humanity committed during what he considered a fight against terrorism.
Fujimori campaigned on a hardline security platform as Peru faces its worst security crisis in decades, fueled by the spread of local and foreign criminal gangs overseeing contract killings and extortion. She has proposed fighting crime by expelling undocumented people, setting up courts with anonymous judges, and making prisoners work for their food.
"It is a party with deep popular roots that has had a dynamic presence in Peruvian politics, even when it was losing elections, because of its uninterrupted presence in Congress," said Jeffrey Radzinsky, director of the political consultancy GFP, of Fujimori's Fuerza Popular party.
Fujimori has also vowed to tackle the El Niño climate phenomenon, which meteorologists predict will be the most intense and devastating since 1998. Her Fuerza Popular party is the largest caucus in Congress, but right-wing groups still fall short of the majority required to push through her initiatives.
The inauguration ceremony will be attended by leaders including Argentina's Javier Milei, Chile's José Antonio Kast, Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, and Uruguay's Yamandú Orsi. Fujimori will be the country's ninth president in a decade, succeeding interim leader José María Balcázar, and will govern until 2031.
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