7 Things You Should Know About Peru's New Right-Wing President
Keiko Fujimori, the first woman to win the Peruvian presidency, assumes power on Tuesday. The pro-Israel, order-obsessed nepo-baby's rise to power has been bizarre and dogged by corruption claims.
On Tuesday, Keiko Fujimori will become Peru’s new president, bringing Fujimorismo, a controversial political creed, back into the limelight.
After three failed presidential bids since 2011, Fujimori hopes to finally deliver her vision of a new “order” for Peru. But many remain skeptical, given her family’s legacy of corruption. So as Peru prepares for a president with a deeply divisive surname, here are seven things you need to know.
1. She Is the Daughter of Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori’s decade as president of Peru from 1990 included a bizarre self-coup, in 1992, and ended in 2000 in a manner that has become common in Peruvian politics: amid serious scandal. Triggered by a video of his intelligence chief bribing an opposition congressman, Fujimori’s government collapsed. Eventually, Fujimori fled to Japan and resigned by fax.
While supporters credit him for defeating Shining Path, a Maoist rebel group which fueled decades of violence, Fujimori’s legacy is also defined by serious human rights abuses including death squad killings, civilian disappearances, and forced sterilization of thousands of Indigenous women. In 2009, he became the first democratically elected Latin American leader convicted for human rights violations, stemming from his role in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres, in which military death squads killed 25 people, including an 8-year-old boy.
2. She Rose to Power Before She Was 20
Keiko Fujimori’s road to political power didn’t begin on the campaign trail, but inside the presidential palace.