After a turbulent decade of nine presidents seemingly going through a revolving door at the Palacio de Gobierno, the Government Palace where the president of Peru lives and works, in Lima, Peruvians in a few hours will begin voting for a new man or woman in charge.
At the White House and State Department, hopes are high that Peru will become the seventh Latin American country to swing to the right in its choice of a president.
That would mean electing Keiko Fujimori — former member of Congress, leader of the right-of-center Fuerza Popular Party, and, most notably, daughter of Peru’s still-controversial strongman President Alberto Fujimori.
A second President Fujimori would mean another close Latin American ally for President Trump. Like Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, and Jose Antonio Kast of Chile, Fujimori would work closely with Trump on issues ranging from trade to battling illegal immigration.
Moreover, Fujimori would almost surely lead Peru into his Shield of the Americas, Trump’s military and economic coalition that embraces nations throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Not so for leftist Roberto Sanchez, who is in a statistical tie with Fujimori, 43.8% to 43.3%, in the final Ipsos poll of likely voters. Sanchez, who served as trade and tourism minister under disgraced and now-imprisoned former President Pedro Castillo, has promised to pursue a rewrite of Peru’s business-friendly constitution adopted under Fujimori’s father.
Castillo was arrested and deposed for attempting a coup to dissolve Congress, override the courts, and give himself complete authority — precisely what the elder Fujimori did in 1992, albeit with more popular support than Castillo had.
Two years after his death, the elder Fujimori remains a polarizing figure. Many Peruvians revere him for crushing terrorist mobs, while others recall him as a dictator who brutally put down political and press opponents. The former president was convicted of various crimes, including authorizing death squads to kill criminals and terrorists as well as the sterilization of indigenous peoples.
His legacy has followed Keiko in three heartbreakingly close defeats for president: 2011, when she received 48.6%; 2016, when she received 49.88%; and 2021, when she received 49.87%.
Now, supporters insist, at a time when the murder rate has doubled so far this decade and with more than 6,000 people killed between January and August of last year, Fujimori’s hard-line law-and-order stance may just put her over the top Tuesday.
Dardo Lopez-Dolz, senior fellow at the Center for a Free Secure Society and former Peruvian minister of the interior, insisted to Newsmax that “only a massive vote of Peruvians living outside of the country — mostly the U.S., Spain, and Argentina, where right-wing candidates always prevail” can ensure a Fujimori win.
“But the pattern is hard to ignore,” Juan Pablo Chamon, co-founder and executive director of the classical liberal LIBERA Bolivia think tank, told Newsmax. “Keiko has now lost three runoffs, and there’s a ceiling she hasn’t been able to break regardless of first-round performance.
“The polls showing a virtual tie are consistent with her historical pattern — she closes well but tends to lose the count. Whether that reflects genuine voter preference, institutional dynamics, or something more irregular is a fair question that observers are watching closely.”