LIMA, July 28, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Peru's right-wing president-elect Keiko 
Fujimori will take office on Tuesday, vowing to tackle the wave of crime 
sweeping the Andean nation.

Fujimori won the June 7 presidential runoff by fewer than 50,000 votes, after 
losing the past three runoffs.

The 51-year-old came head-to-head with leftist Roberto Sanchez, with her 
campaign shadowed by the divisive legacy of her father Alberto Fujimori, who 
ruled Peru in the 1990s.

Alberto Fujimori was jailed for corruption and crimes against humanity 
committed during what he considered a fight against terrorism.

"It is a party with deep popular roots that has had a dynamic presence in 
Peruvian politics, even when it was losing elections, because of its 
uninterrupted presence in Congress," Jeffrey Radzinsky, director of the 
political consultancy GFP, said of Fujimori's Fuerza Popular party.

Fujimori campaigned on a hardline security platform as Peru faces its worst 
security crisis in decades, fueled by the spread of both local and foreign 
criminal gangs that oversee contract killings and extortion.

She has proposed fighting crime by expelling undocumented people, setting up 
courts with anonymous judges and making prisoners work for their food.

The president-elect has also vowed to tackle the El Nino climate phenomenon, 
which meteorologists predict will be the most intense and devastating since 
1998.

Fuerza Popular is the largest caucus in Congress, but right-wing groups still 
fall short of the majority required to push through Fujimori's initiatives.

The inauguration ceremony will be attended by leaders including Argentina's 
Javier Milei, Chile's Jose Antonio Kast, Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz, Ecuador's 
Daniel Noboa and Uruguay's Yamandu Orsi.

Fujimori will be the country's ninth president in a decade, succeeding 
interim leader Jose Maria Balcazar. She will govern until 2031.