“My father and I have decided that he will be the presidential candidate.” With that terse message through her official X account, Keiko Fujimori, the leader of the political party Fuerza Popular, confirmed that her father, the famous dictator of the nineties in Peru, Alberto Fujimori, 85 years old, will return to the electoral arena to face the presidential campaign of 2026.
Alberto Fujimori, extradited from Chile in 2007 after resigning the presidency of Peru beset by corruption and human rights scandals during his term, was imprisoned for 14 of the 25 years comprising his sentence imposed in 2009 for the crimes of aggravated homicide, grievous bodily harm and kidnapping aggravated by cruel treatment, among others.
On Christmas 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski issued a message to the nation in which he argued humanitarian and health reasons for pardoning him. Although the pardon given, in 2018 the Judiciary declared it inapplicable after the relatives of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases filed an appeal alleging a “political pact” for his release, and he was imprisoned.
Four years later, the pardon was reinstated by the Constitutional Court, but was again truncated by a request from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to suspend its effects. In December 2023, the Constitutional Court ordered the execution of the pardon, which was not observed by the current president, Dina Boluarte.
Since then, former president Alberto Fujimori has reported that he suffers from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, pulmonary fibrosis and tongue cancer. Several of his spokespersons indicated in the media that he should be released because he was living his last years.
The announcement of his candidacy was accompanied by an edited video, which includes an excerpt from an interview that his daughter, Keiko, gave recently to a television program of Willax TV channel, where she relates the words of her father, who, she assures, confirmed that he wants to “return to the political arena”, despite the “risks” that this implies.
“I looked at the sparkle in his eyes and said: “Yes, well, he will be in politics all his life” […] I believe that he is the one who has to carry the baton”, he continued.
On June 20, Alberto Fujimori had also communicated through X his affiliation to Fuerza Popular, the Fujimorista party of the current era, formed since 2010 to replace Fuerza 2011, which was previously Alianza Para el Futuro, a coalition that brought together the movements he created during his dictatorial regime, Cambio 90 and Nueva Mayoría.
From that moment on, the name of Alberto and not Keiko as the representative of Fujimorism in the next runoff began to gain strength, since the electoral regulations in Peru require that the presidential candidate be registered in the political organization in which he or she wishes to run. The deadline for affiliation expired last July 12.
In the last three democratic electoral processes in the country, Fuerza Popular, with Keiko at the head, has reached the second electoral round but has always lost. It happened in 2011 against Ollanta Humala, in 2016 against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and in 2021 against Pedro Castillo. The anti-Fujimorism vote, which represents an important sector of the Peruvian left, focused mainly in the southern Andean region, has triumphed by a narrow margin.
In all these elections, after which Fujimorism obtained a significant parliamentary majority, opinion polls have concluded that the strength of the pro-Fujimori vote lies in the memory of the achievements of the time of Fujimori, between 1990 and 2000, and not in the bases and structure of the party achieved by Keiko.
The confirmation of Alberto Fujimori’s presidential candidacy in 2026 has brought with it questions about the legality of his candidacy, given that the Peruvian Constitution establishes that any person sentenced for an intentional crime cannot run for elected office, and he, although pardoned, maintains his conviction.
Criminal and constitutional lawyers have stated that the pardon does not imply amnesty, and that, in addition, Alberto has not paid the civil reparation of S/57 million that he owes to the state, a requirement for the national justice system to formally accredit him as rehabilitated and able to run for public office.
From the other side, his lawyer, Elio Riera, has responded that Alberto “does not have any legal limitation” to run for the presidency because “the pardon as such generates a pardon of the sentence and a rehabilitation of rights”. He also pointed out that the law that prevents a convicted felon from running for elected office was approved after Fujimori’s conviction and cannot be applied retroactively.
How can an 85-year-old cancer patient regain vitality to run for the highest office in a country? Riera assures that, upon his release, Fujimori has experienced “an improvement”. At this moment, he concluded, he is “medically stable”. Is it a miracle or a fairy tale?
What is certain is that, for the moment, Alberto Fujimori will be one of the fifty presidential candidates Peru will probably have in less than two years. A political campaign is approaching in which there are already 30 groups registered to participate in the race, and 20 more in the process of doing so. With a legislation in force that does not encourage the formation of alliances, polarization could lead to the possibility that candidates with less than 10% of the votes will go to the second round. This is what Fujimorism is aiming at.
*Translated by Janaína Ruviaro da Silva from the original in Spanish.
Autor
Periodista peruano especialista en Política. Máster en Comunicación Corporativa por la Universitat de Barcelona. Licenciado en Periodismo y Audiovisuales con experiencia en conducción de TV, comunicación social y corporativa.
