The betting of the power factors could lean towards the former Peruvian president, despite the fact that he is the object of strong social rejection due to the human rights crimes committed under his government and the corruption of that decade.
An incipient internet campaign and statements by political supporters of Alberto Fujimori have opened up the possibility of his full return to politics and even his candidacy to return to government.
The internet video campaign consists of short interviews with various people about whether they would vote for the neoliberal who ruled the country with an iron fist and still has outstanding accounts with the justice system, and the interviewees enthusiastically answer yes.
Added to this are the numerous activists who for years have been covering Fujimori and what they consider to be his achievements under pseudonyms and insulting his detractors. Furthermore, after his release from prison in December 2023, the controversial figure opened accounts on various Internet sites dedicated to the self-praise of his two presidential mandates (1990-2000), to which a third one was added that lasted a few months, as he had to resign in the face of a corruption scandal.
“El Chino” (“the Chinese guy”) (as Fujimori is nicknamed) is back. He is back as a person, as a citizen and as a politician because he is a politician,” said Congresswoman Martha Moyano, a member of the leadership of the pro-Fujimori party Popular Force (FP).
Asked how far the 85-year-old ex-governor could go in the political arena, another FP leader, Miguel Torres, commented that by sharing his opinions and formulating proposals, the ex-president is doing politics.
“If President Fujimori wants to, additionally, take some more steps, he will have to evaluate it and I am sure that they will evaluate it in the family,” responded Torres, who thus hinted at the possibility of Fujimori being a candidate for the presidency in the general elections scheduled for 2026. Torres’ statement appeared to allude to FP leader Keiko Fujimori, who has not commented on her father’s return to politics and whose failures as a presidential candidate in the 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 elections have caused the neoliberal sector of politics to turn its eyes towards her parent.
Added to this is the discrediting and dispersion of the traditional parties and new affinity groups, and the absence of figures with image and influence to challenge for the presidency.
Another weak flank is that the FP, despite its attempts to distance itself from Dina Boluarte’s government, is considered an ally of the ruler that the vast majority of the population rejects, according to all polls.
This perception is due to frequent coincidences between the two sides and events such as the executive’s support for the controversial pardon of Fujimori, who will be released from prison in December 2023, before serving the 25-year sentence he received in 2009 as the perpetrator of two massacres of unarmed civilians. And he is on trial for another similar massacre.
Fujimorism also closed ranks with the government during the repression of protests against Boluarte’s succession to the presidency, which left 50 people dead. Fujimori’s political activism and eventual candidacy have been rejected by human rights organisations and activists such as Ana María Vidal, who has said that “he should not run, especially if he is being tried for a crime against humanity”. PL
(Translated by Cristina Popa – Email: gcpopa83@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay)
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