Former Peru leader Alberto Fujimori to run for president, his daughter says

LIMA – Disgraced former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori seeks to run for president as the candidate of the Popular Force political party, his daughter Keiko Fujimori, who leads the party, said in a video posted on her X account July 14. 

The elder Fujimori wishes to return to politics after

a controversial pardon in 2023

for a conviction in his role in death squad killings.

“He’s going to be in politics until his last day,” Keiko Fujimori, who has run unsuccessfully for the presidency three times, said in the video. 

In June, Mr Fujimori, who turns 86 on July 28, said that he had signed up to become a member of Popular Force ahead of the next election cycle in Peru set for 2026.

He has been making YouTube videos defending his legacy, speaking to the press and publishing a book. 

Keiko Fujimori is herself

accused of laundering campaign contributions

from Credicorp and some of Peru’s largest corporations to finance her failed presidential bids in 2011 and 2016.

Prosecutors allege she was also illegally financed by Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, infamous for having bribed politicians around the region.

Prosecutors seek to imprison the younger Fujimori for as long as 30 years.

An Alberto Fujimori candidacy is likely to be challenged in court because a presidential pardon does not erase his previous sentences.

Mr Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in 2009.

He disclosed earlier in 2024 that he has a recurrence of tongue cancer after battling the disease in the past. BLOOMBERG