Peru completes the turn to the right in Latin America with the narrow victory of Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Fujimori has finally achieved the Presidency of Peru in her fourth attempt and has done so with a minimal victory, after 17 days of counting and a second round decided vote by vote. The right-wing candidate of Fuerza Popular has prevailed over the leftist Roberto Sánchez with 50.1% of the votes against 49.8%, a difference of barely 43,386 votes that returns Fujimorism to the Government Palace 25 years after the fall of Alberto Fujimori.

The external vote ended up tipping the balance. Sánchez has refused to recognize the result and has denounced irregularities in the scrutiny of votes cast outside the country, although his appeals have been rejected as inadmissible and international observers such as the Organization of American States (OAS) have not found irregularities capable of altering the will expressed at the polls. Peru thus enters a new stage with a president elected by a very small margin and with almost half the country positioned against her from day one.

Fujimori comes to power with a surname that continues to divide Peruvian politics in two. For her voters, she represents order, economic stability, and a tough response against insecurity. For her detractors, she brings back the authoritarian legacy of her father, convicted of corruption and crimes against humanity after a government marked by the massacres of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, disappearances, systemic corruption, and forced sterilizations of indigenous women.

Hard hand and conservative turn

Fujimori's campaign was based on a clear promise of authority. The new president has advocated for military patrols in the streets, reinforcement of border control, immediate expulsion of immigrants convicted of crimes, and mandatory work for prisoners. She has also proposed mega-prisons, regional control centers with artificial intelligence, smart patrol cars, and an economic policy favorable to private investment, with fewer bureaucratic obstacles and more weight for businesses.

This program places Peru within the advance of a Latin American far-right that has made security, borders, and penal punishment its main banners. Fujimori has sought to present herself as a leader of order rather than an ideological agitator, but her alliances and support bring her closer to the regional bloc orbited by Javier Milei, José Antonio Kast, Daniel Noboa, or Abelardo de la Espriella, with different discourses but the same promise of authority against crime and the left.

Abascal celebrates the return of Fujimorism

In Spain, the first to celebrate the result has been Santiago Abascal. The president of the far-right Vox has congratulated Fujimori and has presented her victory as a triumph against "impoverishing and totalitarian socialism". The reading fits with the international strategy of the Spanish far-right, which has been trying for years to build an Ibero-American political network around the Disenso Foundation, the Charter of Madrid and its alliances with conservative governments and candidates on the continent.

Fujimori will take office on July 28 in a country exhausted by instability. Peru has had eight presidents in ten years and arrives at this change of command with a fragmented Congress, very battered institutions and a deep territorial fracture between Lima, the urban vote, abroad and the rural, Andean and Amazonian unrest that supported Sánchez. The victory is enough for her to govern. The question, now, is whether it will be enough for her to pacify a country that has not given her a broad mandate, but a minimal advantage.