LIMA - Peru's election authorities formally announced on July 3 that Keiko Fujimori, the Japanese-descended eldest daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, had won the country's presidential runoff election.
The June runoff pitted Fujimori, a 51-year-old right-wing candidate, against left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez, 57. The race was close, delaying the confirmation of the final result, but election officials formally declared Fujimori the winner on July 3.
Following the announcement, Fujimori posted on X the same day, saying, "I am sincerely grateful. I will approach this with a sense of responsibility and mission."
Fujimori, a third-generation Japanese-Peruvian, is the eldest daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori. She won the presidency on her fourth attempt and is scheduled to take office on July 28. Her election means Peru will have Japanese-descended presidents across two generations of the same family.
Alberto Fujimori was Peru’s first Japanese-descended president and one of the most divisive figures in modern Latin American politics. A political outsider and former university rector, he won the presidency in 1990 by defeating novelist Mario Vargas Llosa at a time when Peru was suffering hyperinflation, recession and violence from the Shining Path insurgency. He served from 1990 to 2000.
His supporters credit him with stabilizing Peru’s economy through market-oriented reforms and crushing the Shining Path, including the 1992 capture of its leader Abimael Guzman. His critics say those achievements came at the cost of democratic institutions and human rights. In April 1992, Fujimori carried out a "self-coup," dissolving Congress, suspending parts of the constitution and asserting control over the judiciary with military backing.
Fujimori was re-elected in 1995, but his government became increasingly associated with authoritarian rule, corruption and the power of intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. His third term in 2000 collapsed after a corruption scandal involving Montesinos. Fujimori fled to Japan and resigned the presidency by fax from Tokyo, but Peru’s Congress rejected the resignation and removed him from office.
After years in Japan, Fujimori was arrested in Chile in 2005 and extradited to Peru in 2007. In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses linked to death squad killings and kidnappings during his presidency. He was also convicted in corruption-related cases. His pardon became a recurring legal and political battle before he was released in 2023. Fujimori died in Lima in September 2024 at age 86.
For Keiko Fujimori’s article, the key context is that she inherits both sides of that legacy: the appeal of a Japanese-descended political dynasty credited by supporters with restoring order and economic stability, and the burden of a name tied to authoritarian rule, corruption and human rights convictions.
Source: FNN
