LIMA, Oct 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The ultra-conservative mayor of Peru's capital resigned Monday and announced a run for president of the Andean country that is grappling with a surge in violent crime and political upheaval.

Mayor of Lima since 2022, Rafael Lopez Aliaga is an engineer by training and a wealthy entrepreneur who made his fortune in hotels and railroads. He is currently the favorite in opinion polls concerning Peru's next leader.

He announced his bid for the job just three days after Peru's Congress impeached deeply unpopular former president Dina Boluarte, who is now facing multiple probes for corruption and abuse of power.

The 38-year-old head of Peru's legislature, Jose Jeri, was sworn in to lead the nation until elections in April 2026 -- Peru's seventh president in nine years.

This marks the second time Lopez Aliaga, 64, has run for president, following a bid in 2021.

"I announce my resignation from the position of mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima to run in the primaries of the Popular Renewal party," Lopez Aliaga said in a letter read out before the city council.

A member of the traditionalist Catholic group Opus Dei, the portly, balding Lopez Aliaga has embraced the nickname "Porky," turning it into something of a political symbol.

In June, when a supporter gave him a piglet in a cape as he visited a road project, he nicknamed it "Worky" to highlight his "love of work."

Peru's media is calling his second run for president "Porky's revenge."

The country is in the midst of a deep security crisis, with extortion and contract killings having become a feature of daily life across the nation.

Lopez Aliaga -- an admirer of Donald Trump and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele -- calls for the worst criminals, whom he refers to as "urban terrorists," to be tried by military tribunals.