The far-right is advancing in Latin America. In Peru,Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, was elected president. But how did the heir to a notorious human rights violator come to power in the country?
InBdF Interview, fromRadio Brasil de Fato, international analyst Hugo Albuquerque explains that Alberto Fujimori was very popular in the country, managing to be democratically elected in 1990, during a period of severe social crisis, with high inflation and violence promoted by guerrillas after years of military dictatorships.
It is important to say that the Peruvian military dictatorship had a different character from that of Brazil. At least in its early stages, it had a nationalist character, even with the support of the Soviet bloc, with Velasco Alvarado," Albuquerque explains. "Velasco Alvarado led a project that resembled Getúlio's more than our dictators here.
"However, coups within coups led the Peruvian military regime to align itself with the United States. So, when democracy returns to Peru, there are many issues that need to be resolved. There was also great resentment from the left towards Cuba and the Soviet Union for supporting Velasco Alvarado, which radicalized some sectors of young people towards ultra-leftism and guerrilla warfare in the 1980s," says the expert.
Albuquerque explains that curiously, Fujimori's main opponent at the time of his rise to power in 1990 was Nobel laureate in literature Mario Vargas Llosa, considered more radical and neoliberal then. In the second round, Fujimori even garnered support from left-wing parties. Once inaugurated, however, he adopted a severe economic shock therapy and implemented a policy of strong state repression.
"He came with a brutal repression agenda to end political dissent within Peru and against crime. And in the midst of this shock, he ended up becoming an extremely popular figure," explains the expert.
"He was re-elected by a reasonable margin, but little by little, Fujimori expanded his powers, carrying out small coups within the coup. In this sense, he resembles more the Bolsonaro government than the military regimes here, because he expanded his power within an institutional framework, until he fraudulently achieved a third term," Albuquerque tells us.
Besides extreme violence and corruption, the Fujimorist period left as its legacy a fragile institutionality, a weakening of presidential power, and many powers given to oversight bodies such as the Public Ministry and even Congress, which gained the ability to easily remove presidents.
As a consequence, in the last ten years, only former President Ollanta Humala managed to complete his five-year term, although his government was paralyzed. Albuquerque explains that when Pedro Pablo Kuczynski won in 2016, the absence of a majority in Congress allowed the Fujimorism, along with other right-wing forces, to work to make the government unstable.
Keiko Fujimori's election thus takes place in a context of great institutional fragility. In the last five years, since 2021, Peru has had four different rulers: Pedro Castillo, Dina Boluarte, José Jerí, and José María Balcázar.
In 2026, Albuquerque believes the interference of the United States in the elections still weighed heavily. "Trump was decisive in keeping other radical right-wing groups, which eventually aligned with Fujimorism in the second round, in their position and rejecting the left-wing candidate."
To listen and watch
TheBdF Interviewairs from Monday to Friday at 4 p.m., onBrazil Fact Radio, 98.9 FM in Greater São Paulo.