Former Peruvian Dictator at the Center of Controversy Again
by María Josefina Arce
Controversy has once again erupted in Peruvian society following the announcement that former dictator Alberto Fujimori could run for president in the 2026 general elections for the right-wing Popular Force Party, which he joined last June.
The news was announced on the social network X by his daughter Keiko Fujimori, leader of Fuerza Popular, who has failed in her three attempts to come to power in 2011, 2016 and 2021, and who is also being asked by the Public Prosecutor's Office to serve 30 years in prison for money laundering.
Immediately, there were many statements against the possible candidacy of the former president, who governed Peru between 1990 and 2000 and who will be 87 years old in the 2026 general elections.
Last December, Fujimori was released from a prison in the capital, Lima, where he was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity.
Despite objections due to the impunity it implied, the Constitutional Court reinstated the humanitarian pardon granted to him in 2017 by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, which caused a great stir in society.
Criticism and protests throughout the country followed Kuczynski's decision in favor of the former dictator, who was serving a sentence for the massacres of Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992.
Even the UN questioned the pardon of Fujimori, who has three other corruption convictions and owes the state some $15 million.
Now the controversy has flared up again. Jurists and politicians have reminded that Article 34-A of the Constitution and the Organic Law of Elections prevent his candidacy because of the condition of having been convicted of an intentional crime.
Ernesto Blume, former president of the Constitutional Tribunal, said it was incongruous for a citizen to be pardoned and then run for the presidency. He specified that the pardon does not make the convicted person innocent, nor does it erase his record, nor does it constitute a complete rehabilitation that would allow him to run for president.
In his aspirations, Fujimori will have to deal not only with his legal problems, but also with his health, which has led him to be hospitalized several times.
According to experts, it is a matter of diverting the possible votes of the former dictator to his daughter Keiko, who would end up running again.
Many hope that the announcement will not succeed and that the next election will feature candidates who are not involved in human rights violations or corruption.
