Peru: Alberto Fujimori Will Become Presidential Candidate in 2026
The former president is now 85 years old and very ill, his daughter Keiko said
Despite being 85 years old and seriously ill, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will run for the next election, which will be held in 2026.
The statement was made by the daughter and leader of the country’s main right-wing Popular Force party, founded by her father.
“My father and I talked and together we decided that he would be a presidential candidate,” Keiko Fujimori wrote in a post on X social media.
Fujimori was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000 and served a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses, but was released from prison at the end of 2023.
He ruled the South American country with an iron hand, greatly weakening the Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (“Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path”). He was jailed in 2009 for mass killings attributed to him as part of what Fujimori called anti-terrorist operations.
Praised by the population for the economic progress made in the country during his mandate, Fujimori was convicted four times: three times for corruption and then for human rights violations. He is currently at large as he was first granted a pardon in 2017, which was then revoked, and granted a final pardon in 2023.
