Alberto Fujimori will be a candidate for the Presidency of Peru again, according to his daughter

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) will run again for the post of head of state of Peru in the 2026 general elections, his daughter Keiko Fujimori announced on Sunday, July 14, 2024.

See more: Alberto Fujimori, convicted of crimes against humanity, ordered to be released

“My father and I have talked and decided together that he will be the presidential candidate”said the leader of the Fuerza Popular party in a brief message published on the social network X.

Keiko Fujimori made the announcement after the newspaper El Comercio published an interview on Sunday in which she said she was sure that if her father participated in new elections, he would make it to the second round of the presidential election.

Fujimori, who will turn 86 on July 28, left the Lima prison last December where he was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity, after the Constitutional Court (TC) restored the humanitarian pardon granted to him in 2017 by then-ruler Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018).

In her statements to El Comercio, Keiko Fujimori said that her father told her “that he wanted to participate in politics, that he knew the risks he was exposing himself to” and added that “he has a lot of experience” and would support her final decision.

The leader of Fuerza Popular pointed out that it is “conscious of his age” and the health problems his father faces, including that he suffers from cancer of the tongue and has undergone hip surgery, from which he is in the process of recovering.

Keiko also said that “several lawyers” have told him “that he could be a candidate,” even though lawyers and politicians point out that he is prevented from doing so due to his status as a convicted criminal, as established in Article 34-A of the Peruvian Constitution and the Organic Law of Elections.

In the interview, Keiko Fujimori said she still does not know if she will run for the Senate, but she assured that she will not be on her father’s presidential ticket.

On July 4, the Peruvian Judiciary rejected the statute of limitations for the crime of criminal association in a case for human rights violations opened against Fujimori, his former advisor Vladimiro Montesinos and the former high-ranking military officers Nicolás de Bari Hermoza and Luis Pérez Documet.

The decision was made in the ongoing proceedings against the defendants for their alleged involvement in the Pativilca and La Cantuta cases, where the undercover military group Colina murdered a total of 16 people in 1992.

While the prosecution has requested sentences of a minimum of 25 years in prison, on January 31 Montesinos received a sentence of 19 years and 8 months in prison after having accepted the legal option of early termination, by accepting his responsibility.

When questioned at a previous hearing, the former president announced that he would not accept early termination, In January, the prosecution considered a request for 18 months of house arrest, which was ultimately rejected.

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