Peru’s long-running political turmoil continued in February, as Congress removed José Jerí from the presidency for failing to disclose meetings with Chinese businessmen. Jerí had been president for just four months, and the legislature replaced him with José María Balcázar, an 83-year-old former judge and member of the leftist Perú Libre party.
This instability, which has already brought Peru nine presidents in 10 years, as well as a rise in violent crime are top of mind for voters as the April general elections near. The country’s homicide rate has doubled since 2019, and extortion and other gang-related crimes have also become much more common.
A record 36 candidates are now vying for the presidency, crowding the field and reflecting the country’s fragmented political landscape. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on April 12, the top two will advance to a June 7 runoff.
All seats in Congress are also up for election in the high-stakes April 12 contest. For the first time in decades, the country will vote to choose a Senate, the result of a 2024 electoral reform that reinstituted a bicameral system and reversed a ban on consecutive terms for legislators. All winners will be elected to a five-year term.
AQ has included only candidates polling above 5% in recent IPSOS surveys, listed in alphabetical order by last name, and has asked a dozen nonpartisan experts on Peru to help us identify where each candidate stands on two spectrums: left versus right on economic matters, and personalistic versus institutionalist on leadership style.
The results are mapped on the charts below. We’ve published the average response, with a caveat: Platforms evolve, and so do candidates.
Keiko Fujimori
50, former member of Congress
President, Fuerza Popular party
“The goal is to lead and to rescue Peru from violence.”
HOW SHE GOT HERE
Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), served as first lady for most of his presidency. She has led his political bloc since 2010 and represented one of Lima’s districts in Congress from 2006-2011. Fujimori ran for president in 2011, 2016, and 2021, losing narrowly in the runoff each time. She has remained a powerful political operator as head of the conservative Fuerza Popular party.
WHY SHE MIGHT WIN
Fujimori has strong name recognition, and public memory of her father, who died in 2024, has evolved. Her father was convicted in 2009 on charges of bribery, illegal wiretapping, and crimes against humanity in separate cases. But he is also remembered for tackling hyperinflation, growing the economy, subduing violent insurgencies, and expanding social programs. Amid today’s high crime rates and protracted economic and political instability, the memory of his mano dura, which she promises to replicate, albeit within democratic bounds, has greater appeal.
WHY SHE MIGHT LOSE
Some conservative voters who view Fujimori favorably may opt to vote for other right-wing candidates out of pragmatism, given her three straight runoff losses. And after three decades on the political scene, she has become a polarizing figure. Fujimori was held in pre-trial detention for 16 months on charges of laundering illegal campaign donations from Odebrecht, though the Constitutional Court dismissed the case in October of last year on procedural grounds. She and her party were also implicated in the “White Collar” judicial corruption scandal that shook the country in 2018, and they face new campaign-finance accusations from 2021, though she has not been convicted of any related crimes and denies wrongdoing in connection with all accusations against her.
WHO SUPPORTS HER
Promising to build on her father’s legacy, Fujimori has a strong support base. She is especially popular in some of the poorest areas in and around Lima among those who benefited from her father’s expansion of social programs, and in northern Peru among those who remember her father’s attentive response to the devastating El Niño floods of 1998. Fuerza Popular holds the largest bloc in Congress, and many see her more as a savvy politician than a populist, which may appeal to voters seeking stability.
WHAT SHE WOULD DO
Fujimori has pledged to deploy troops, military intelligence, and other armed forces units to combat street violence and organized crime. She has also stated she would temporarily place the military in charge of the prison system to overhaul it from the ground up. Additionally, Fujimori promised to allocate more funds for assistance to children and the elderly and to free up resources by requiring prison inmates convicted of serious offenses to work. Her party platform introduction advocates for “deregulatory shock.”
IDEOLOGY
Rafael López Aliaga
65, former mayor of Lima
President, Renovación Popular party
“I’m a moralist, and I have principles that don’t change.”
HOW HE GOT HERE
López Aliaga, a railway and luxury hotel magnate, ran for president in 2021, finishing third and narrowly missing the runoff. The following year, he was elected mayor of Lima, home to over 10 million people, with a plurality of 26.4% of the vote. He served from January 2023 until last October, when he resigned to run for president in the current election cycle. A member of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei, he consistently garners media attention with his brash, pugnacious right-populist rhetoric and has embraced the widely-used nickname “Porky” for his resemblance to Porky Pig, lending a lighter, accessible side to his persona.
WHY HE MIGHT WIN
He is popular in Lima, which makes up about a third of the country’s population, mainly because of his tough stance on crime and corruption. López Aliaga has also gained significant support in southern Peru by forming alliances with local business and religious leaders. Polls show that violent crime is a major concern for voters, and he has pledged to crack down aggressively. During his two and a half years as mayor, López Aliaga received praise from locals for fulfilling his main anti-corruption promise to cancel a controversial toll-road contract and for organizing the donation of over 100 decommissioned train cars from California, intended for a planned expansion of public transit in and around Lima.
WHY HE MIGHT LOSE
López Aliaga sometimes struggles with public speaking. In a 2021 presidential debate, he read directly from notes and was at times difficult to understand. Recently, clips showing the candidate appearing to lose his train of thought mid-sentence have gone viral. He could not lower crime rates in Lima as mayor, and he has faced criticism for tending to act unilaterally as well as for his harsh language toward the press, including a statement that a specific journalist should be “eliminated once and for all.”
WHO SUPPORTS HIM
López Aliaga is popular among voters who see violent crime as their top concern, with his strongest support in Lima. He also maintains a solid rapport with the wealthy and religious voters, both Catholic and Evangelical, who support his firm conservative positions against abortion, gay marriage, and other culture war issues. Additionally, he has backing from the hard right, having condemned the “globalist” left as “lying, thieving and murderous” and labeled progressives as privileged, out-of-touch “caviars.”
WHAT HE WOULD DO
He has vowed to slash red tape, shutter most government ministries, and align himself closely with U.S. President Donald Trump and regional leaders like Argentina’s Javier Milei on social and economic issues. He has said he would use military courts for civilian prosecutions, deploy troops to the nation’s borders, confront street crime aggressively as an admirer of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, and even request U.S. boots on the ground. He would also try to “balance” Peru’s growing trade relationship with China by inking new agreements with the U.S. His party platform introduction calls for decentralization of government.
IDEOLOGY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rich Brown
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBrown is an editor and production manager at Americas Quarterly.
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