Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday, completing a narrow victory in the June runoff election and extending a rightward shift that is reshaping Latin American politics. She becomes Peru’s first elected female president: and the latest leader in a string of conservative victories across a region that once seemed to be moving left.
Fujimori’s win was tight. She took the runoff by a margin of fewer than 100,000 votes, a split that reflects a country deeply divided over her political lineage. She is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the former president who ruled Peru in the 1990s, defeated the Shining Path insurgency, and was later convicted of human rights abuses and corruption. She has spent years trying to step out of that shadow: first as a congresswoman, then as a perennial presidential candidate who lost three previous runs before finally breaking through.
Her campaign focused on the issues that carried conservatives to power across the region: crime, economic stagnation, and a rejection of the left-wing governments that voters blame for both. From Chile to Ecuador to Argentina, the pattern has been the same. Voters frustrated by weak growth, rising violence, and the failures of progressive administrations have turned to tough-on-crime conservatives who promise order before equality.
Fujimori has signaled that she will strengthen ties with the United States and pursue a business-friendly economic agenda. That puts her in line with the broader regional trend. The so-called “pink tide” of leftist governments that swept Latin America in the 2000s and 2010s has receded almost everywhere except Mexico and Bolivia. In its place is a conservative bloc that runs from the Southern Cone through the Andes.
The question for Peru is whether Fujimori can govern beyond her narrow base. She enters office with a divided country, an economy struggling with inflation and informality, and a public that has little patience for political dysfunction. Peru has had six presidents in a decade, a revolving door that has eroded trust in every institution.
The Fujimori name carries both a brand and a burden. Keiko Fujimori has tried to distance herself from her father’s worst chapters while inheriting his political machine. Whether she can write a different story in her own term will define not just her presidency but the durability of the conservative turn that brought her to power.