Trujillo, Peru – Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Peru’s former leader Alberto Fujimori, announced on Friday she will run for president for the fourth time after a court dropped a money-laundering case against her.
She announced her 2026 presidential bid at a rally in the northern city of Trujillo, one of the areas most affected by the rise of organized crime, just one week after the Constitutional Court dismissed the case against her over irregular financing of her previous electoral campaigns.
She came runner-up in the last three elections in 2011, 2016, and 2021.
“Today, here, surrounded by the Fujimori family, and accompanied from afar by Peruvians watching us on social media, I want to announce my decision to be a candidate for president of the Republic for Fuerza Popular,” said Fujimori amid applause.
The leader of the Fuerza Popular clarified that Fujimori will only be a candidate for president and will not head her party’s Senate list because she does not want “a consolation prize” and because she neither wants nor needs immunity, referring to the so-called ‘Cocktail Case,’ for which she has been under investigation for nearly 10 years.
The candidate, whose nomination is still pending confirmation in the party’s internal elections and official registration with the electoral authorities, announced that former congressmen Luis Galarreta and Miguel Torres, two men she trusts implicitly, will be her running mates for first and second vice president, respectively.
“They have extensive political experience, they know all about public administration, and they have always been able to foster dialogue and consensus,” Fujimori said.
She claimed that the country already combated terrorism under the leadership of her father, who died in September 2014, and that with determination, they will overcome the violence that is particularly affecting Lima and Trujillo.
“Don’t be afraid, we must continue to dream. I believe we have the capacity to confront this violence, or rather, urban terrorism. But this urban terrorism cannot be confronted with speeches, pretty words, or by acting from behind desks. This damned violence must be faced in the streets, with the armed forces and with intelligence,” she stated. “Fujimorism will bring the authority that all Peruvians need.”
So far, the ultraconservative former mayor of Lima, Rafael López Aliaga, has announced his candidacy for Renovación Popular, as has businessman and former governor César Acuña, for the right-wing Alianza Para el Progreso.
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