In another polarizing Latin American election, Peru’s June 7 runoff pitted two ideological opponents against each other.
Conservative lawmaker Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, and leftist lawmaker Roberto Sánchez, who is supported by imprisoned former President Pedro Castillo, won with 17% and 12% of the vote, respectively, in the first round held on April 12.
This race comes as Peruvians have grown increasingly weary of their elected officials. A 2025 OECD study found that trust in government is lower in Peru than in other Latin American or Caribbean countries. With eight presidents in power in just 10 years, political instability has become a feature of Peruvian politics.
Scandals and accusations during this campaign did little to restore voter trust.
After the final vote in April confirmed that Sánchez would advance to the runoff, prosecutors charged Sánchez with financial crimes, accusing him and his brother of failing to disclose 280,000 soles ($81,720) in political party donations. His critics are calling for his disqualification.
“This can’t help but be seen as a politically motivated move to remove him as a viable candidate,” said Jo Marie Burt, senior fellow for Peru at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Latin America Report In May.
Additionally, delays in the delivery of ballots and the speedy release of vote counts in the first round of voting led to the resignation of the head of Peru’s electoral office.
Conservative candidate and Trump supporter Rafael Lopez Aliaga failed to advance to the second round of voting, claiming election fraud and threatening to call for mass protests. He now faces criminal charges for inciting civil disorder.
Despite political differences, corruption extends across party lines.
An Ipsos poll last year found that crime, corruption and political instability were the top concerns of Peruvians, but voters may have to choose between a variety of political and economic ideologies that exhibit similar patterns of corruption.
“On economic issues, (the candidates) are quite different. On the rule of law, it’s unclear,” said Will Freeman, a Latin America fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies corruption and organized crime in the region. Latin America Report.
On the one hand, Fujimori’s Fuerza Popular party has been at the center of Peru’s institutional decline for a decade. After winning a majority in parliament in 2016, the party fought anti-corruption investigations stemming from the region-wide Odebrecht kickback scandal. Freeman acknowledged that the investigation “could quite well be argued to have gone too far at times.”
“But the response was to dismantle Peru’s judicial system and the rule of law,” he added. The name Fujimori is now “doubly associated” with authoritarianism.
In the shadow of his father’s dictatorship, marred by corruption and human rights abuses, Keiko now suffers “not only what my father did, but what he did himself,” he claimed.
Opposition to the Fujimori family, or “anti-Fujimorism,” has long been a pillar of Peruvian politics and can be credited with rejecting Keiko’s three previous presidential runs.
But her strength in opinion polls suggests her opposition is weakening.
Freeman attributes Keiko’s current success more to the collapse of the political coalition opposing her family than to her own charm.
President Pedro Castillo, a leftist and Sánchez supporter who was elected in 2021 with support from anti-Fujimoristas, will continue to embrace his own form of abuse of power and attempt to dissolve parliament “almost in imitation of Alberto Fujimori himself,” Freeman said. Last year, Castillo was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.
Elections are often framed as “left versus right,” but corruption and the disintegration of institutional power extend beyond partisan lines in Peru.
In Congress, Castillo and Fujimorista lawmakers often voted together when it was in their interest, Freeman said. “Specifically, it’s about undermining the judicial system and protecting yourself from investigation.”
China and the United States in Peru
Foreign governments, especially the United States and China, are paying attention to what’s happening in Peru on Sunday.
As President Trump aims to strengthen U.S. influence in Latin America during his second term, China, which has invested heavily in Latin American countries for decades, particularly Peru, also has its interests at stake.
“I can’t stress enough how important Peru is to China,” Freeman said.
China controls about half of Lima’s power supply and a new deep-sea megaport in Xiangkai, and is planning a maritime corridor linking the port with Brazil as a route for exports of South American goods.
In contrast, Washington has largely excluded Peru. Freeman said that even under former President Joe Biden, there was “a tacit acceptance that the battle was already lost.”
It is unclear whether the Trump administration’s interventionist moves in Latin America will extend to Peru. Fujimori’s victory and ideological alignment with Washington “could open up space for a more direct presence of U.S. forces,” Freeman suggested. “It’s similar to what Ecuador did,” he said, whether against coca production or at ports.
It seems unlikely that Sanchez will allow the same to happen. His progressivism and close ties to Castillo’s leftist movement could draw Trump’s ire, as was the case in Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.
Freeman also warned against reading Fujimori’s victory as Peru joining right-wing forces allied with the United States.
“This is more of a culmination of that process than the beginning of a sudden wave of authoritarianism,” he said. Peru’s government has effectively shifted to the right since Castillo was ousted in 2022, with the conservative Congress setting the agenda.
Featured image: Shared by Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sanchez through their respective X accounts.
