Keiko Fujimori sworn in as Peru president after narrow election win

Fujimori takes office promising an iron-fisted crackdown on crime, as critics fear a return to her father’s tactics.

Keiko Fujimori has been sworn in as Peru’s president after narrowly winning an election dominated by voters’ fears over soaring crime and despite lingering divisions over the legacy of her strongman father, Alberto Fujimori.

The conservative 51-year-old defeated left-wing rival Roberto Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes in June’s run-off after losing three previous presidential bids. She becomes Peru’s ninth president in a decade, taking office with a promise to restore stability after years of political turmoil that have seen a string of presidents removed, resign or replaced before finishing their terms.

“I swear … that I will faithfully carry out the duties of president of the republic,” Fujimori told Congress during her inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.

Fujimori’s Fuerza Popular is the largest bloc in Congress. Together with its main right-wing ally, it will hold half the seats in the newly installed Senate, making it harder for her to be removed as president, although right-wing parties still fall short of the majority needed to push through her agenda.

Fujirimori’s campaign centred on law and order as Peru faces its worst security crisis in decades, with extortion and contract killings driven by the spread of local and foreign criminal gangs. She pledged to tackle crime with an “iron fist,” proposing measures including a mega-prison modelled on El Salvador’s Cecot facility, anonymous judges for criminal trials, deportations of undocumented migrants and requiring prisoners to work for their food.

Her victory also marks the return of one of Peru’s most divisive political dynasties.

Fujimori, 51, is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who ruled Peru during the 1990s. She entered public life at just 19, when her father asked her to be first lady after a public split with her mother, and she has spent decades at the centre of Peruvian politics.

Her father, credited by supporters with defeating the Shining Path, a Maoist rebellion to overthrow the state and impose a communist regime, and bringing hyperinflation under control through harsh neoliberal reforms. But later, he was convicted of corruption and crimes against humanity committed during his government’s campaign against armed groups and served 16 years in prison.

That legacy helped propel Keiko Fujimori to victory, but it is also why many fear the return of a Fujimori to power.

“She is going to be a replica of her father,” a retiree named Cesar Fuentes told AFP.

Critics accuse her Fuerza Popular party of contributing to years of political instability through its influence in Congress, and fear her promised crime crackdown could erode civil liberties. On the eve of her inauguration, relatives of victims of state violence gathered in Lima to reject her incoming government, demanding justice for abuses committed under her father’s administration.

Opposition groups have also urged the new government to reverse recent laws they say have weakened efforts to tackle organised crime and to reopen efforts to investigate the deaths of dozens of protesters during demonstrations in 2022 and 2023.