Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) will run once more for the post of head of state of Peru in the 2026 general elections, his daughter Keiko Fujimori announced on Sunday.
“My father and I have talked and decided together that he will be the presidential candidate,” said the leader of the Fuerza Popular party in a brief message posted on the social network X.
Keiko Fujimori made the announcement following the newspaper El Comercio published an interview on Sunday in which she said she was sure that if her father participated in new elections he would make it to the second round of the presidential election.
Age
Fujimori, who will turn 86 on July 28, left the Lima prison last December where he was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes once morest humanity, following the Constitutional Court (TC) restored the humanitarian pardon granted to him in 2017 by then-ruler Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018).
In her statements to El Comercio, Keiko Fujimori said that her father told her “that he wanted to participate in politics, that he knew the risks he was exposing himself to” and added that “he has a lot of experience” and would support her final decision.
The leader of Fuerza Popular said that she is “conscious of his age” and of the health problems that her father is facing, among which she recalled that he suffers from cancer of the tongue and has undergone a hip operation, from which he is in the process of recovering.
Keiko also said that “several lawyers” have told him “that he might be a candidate,” even though lawyers and politicians point out that he is prevented from doing so due to his status as a convicted criminal, as established in Article 34-A of the Peruvian Constitution and the Organic Law of Elections.
Interview
In the interview, Keiko Fujimori said she still does not know if she will run for the Senate, but she assured that she will not be on her father’s presidential ticket.
On July 4, the Peruvian judiciary rejected the statute of limitations for the crime of criminal association in a case for human rights violations opened once morest Fujimori, his former advisor Vladimiro Montesinos and former high-ranking military officers Nicoláás de Bari Hermoza and Luis Péérez Documet.
The decision was made in the proceedings once morest the defendants for their alleged involvement in the Pativilca and La Cantuta cases, where the undercover military group Colina murdered a total of 16 people in 1992.
Sentences
While the prosecution has requested sentences of a minimum of 25 years in prison, on January 31 Montesinos received a sentence of 19 years and 8 months in prison following having accepted the legal option of early termination, by accepting his responsibility.
When questioned at a previous hearing, the former president announced that he would not accept early termination, so in January a request from the Prosecutor’s Office was analyzed to impose 18 months of house arrest, which was ultimately rejected.
Lima / EFE
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2024-07-15 10:08:47
