Keiko Fujimori, the right-wing candidate for the presidency in Peru, has promised to deport migrants in irregular situations, attract more American investments, and extend the conservative wave in the region, in an exclusive interview with AFP on the eve of the Sunday election. She has pledged to “restore order” in her first 100 days in power in a country deeply affected by crime, while emphasizing her closeness to Washington and conservative leaders in neighboring countries such as Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
Keiko Fujimori, running for president for the fourth time, is favored in the election, which includes a record 35 candidates, with over 15% of the vote intentions in the latest polls. Against a backdrop of increasing rivalry between the United States and China in Latin America, Keiko Fujimori has expressed her desire to strengthen ties with Washington. “My role, if I am elected president, will be to encourage the United States to become more actively involved again,” she said, in the Peruvian economy, adding that she also wants to “encourage Europe to venture across the Atlantic to come to Peru again.”
Peru is the second-largest recipient of Chinese investments in Latin America, behind Brazil, with at least $29 billion invested between 2005 and 2025, according to the China Global Investment Tracker. “Latin America is moving towards a trend that prioritizes freedom, investment, and the reestablishment of control and security,” said the candidate regarding the rise to power of right-wing leaders in countries like Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador. “Only Colombia and Peru are left,” she emphasized, expressing hope, as president, to join this dynamic.
Keiko Fujimori’s campaign focuses on promising to end the rise in crime, the main concern of Peruvians, which she associates with irregular immigration. “We will deport nationals in irregular situations,” she assured, also promising to send the army to prisons and deeply reform the judicial system. “I am committed to restoring order in Peru and we will ask for powers from Congress so that the armed forces help us control the prisons,” she specifically mentioned. On the migration issue, she advocated for the establishment of a “humanitarian corridor” to allow the return of migrants in irregular situations, especially Venezuelans.
Keiko Fujimori has also promised during her campaign to tighten border controls and reinstate “faceless judges,” anonymous magistrates used under her father’s regime, a controversial practice. Throughout her campaign, she has not hesitated to evoke her father’s legacy. Despite his conviction to 25 years in prison for corruption and crimes against humanity, Alberto Fujimori, who was acquitted in 2024, is still credited by some of the population for defeating the Shining Path guerrilla (1980-2000) and ending hyperinflation.
According to the latest polls, Keiko Fujimori is closely followed in the voting intentions by the humorist with radical speech Carlos Alvarez, the ultra-conservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga, the centrist Ricardo Belmont, and the left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez.
The Andean country is going through a deep political crisis, with eight presidents in ten years, including four impeached by Parliament and two others forced to resign. Peruvians will also vote for their representatives in Parliament on Sunday, as part of the reinstatement of a bicameral system, a first since the 1990s.
