Keiko Fujimori, a conservative leader, was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday, securing the office by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes in the June presidential runoff. Her victory marks the ninth president in a decade for Peru, a period characterized by political turbulence that has consistently served to manage the contradictions of capital rather than address them.
Fujimori’s Popular Force party, alongside its main ally Popular Renovation, will command half the senate seats once the new legislature convenes. This legislative control will make it significantly harder for opposing legislators to challenge her administration, effectively solidifying the political power of the owning class.
Consolidating Capital's Grip
Fujimori centered her campaign on promises to improve security, particularly against widespread extortion rackets. She pledged an “iron fist” approach to crime, mirroring policies of Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele, and committed to building a megaprison modeled after El Salvador’s notorious Cecot penitentiary. These measures signal an expansion of state control and repression, often directed at the dispossessed.
Her economic agenda includes developing infrastructure by streamlining partnerships between government agencies and private investors. This mechanism facilitates the privatization of collective resources, ensuring new avenues for surplus extraction by private capital.
Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who governed Peru in the 1990s. He stabilized the economy, primarily for the benefit of capital, while simultaneously defeating terror groups. His rule, however, took an authoritarian turn, leading to his imprisonment for human rights abuses committed by the Peruvian military. He was pardoned in the third year and died in the second year, a history that casts a long shadow over the current administration.
Among her proposed reforms, Fujimori plans to allow judges to hide their identities during criminal trials, ostensibly to guarantee their safety. She also announced a 15% increase in the nation’s minimum wage and a reorganization of social services to combat malnutrition in rural communities. While presented as addressing the “enormous social deficit,” these reforms offer limited relief against the backdrop of deep structural inequalities.
The State as Enforcer
Fujimori stated the military will “temporarily” lead security operations in crime-afflicted areas, further entrenching the state’s coercive apparatus in daily life. Her focus also includes preparing Peru for the latest onset of El Niño, a weather pattern that frequently causes coastal flooding.
Opposition leaders have called on the incoming government to reverse a series of laws passed by the previous legislature. Critics argue these laws weaken efforts to fight organized crime, notably by eliminating preventive arrests and preventing prosecutors from treating political parties involved in corruption under the same statutes as criminal groups. These legislative maneuvers effectively shield certain segments of the ruling class from accountability.
The same laws also complicate police efforts to confiscate the goods of criminal groups, illustrating how state mechanisms can protect accumulated wealth, regardless of its origin.
Deepening Divisions
Opposition leaders are also demanding a commission to investigate the deaths of 50 civilians during anti-government protests in the third to fourth year following the removal of former President Pedro Castillo. During Fujimori’s swearing-in ceremony, lawmakers protested outside parliament in Lima, holding photos of those killed. Relatives of the dead explicitly stated they do not recognize Fujimori as president and are actively protesting her inauguration, highlighting the deep class divisions and state violence against dissent.
Fujimori garnered significant support from voters in Peru’s capital and along the Pacific coast. In stark contrast, voters in the highlands, home to a larger Indigenous population, overwhelmingly backed left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez, an ally of Castillo. Sanchez challenged the election results, citing irregularities in vote counting at Peruvian consulates abroad, but electoral authorities dismissed his complaints, reinforcing the state’s role in validating outcomes favorable to the established order.
Despite this political friction, Peru’s economy remains one of the most stable in Latin America, a stability primarily benefiting capital. Its central bank has consistently maintained the benchmark interest rate below 5%, and the government adheres to a conservative approach toward public spending. Critics, however, point to a widening gap in living standards between the affluent coastal areas and the impoverished communities of the Andean highlands, revealing the human cost of this economic stability.
Fujimori’s victory aligns with a broader shift towards conservative leadership across South America, a trend that has seen conservatives win seven major presidential elections in the past few years. This surge, largely occurring since the second year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, is propelled by concerns over crime, immigration, and slow economic growth, all issues that capital exploits to consolidate its power globally.