Choosing a President, Peruvians Familiar With Oppression and Exclusion Find Hope |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
Choosing a President, Peruvians Familiar With Oppression and Exclusion Find Hope
As the second round of presidential voting in Peru approaches on June 7, the progressive Roberto Sánchez of the United for Justice Party is confronting Keiko Fujimori, the right-wing candidate who has finished second in Peru’s last three presidential elections.
First-round voting for 30 candidates took place on April 12 and extended into the next day. Vote counting finished five weeks later, on May 17. Election authorities announced Sanchez has12.0% of the vote; Fujimori, 17.2%; and reactionary candidate and former Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga, 11.9%. Only 21,000 votes separate the latter two. Flawed management by the National Office of Electoral Processes is widely regarded as scandalous.
Psychologist Roberto Sánchez won election to Peru’s Congress in 2021 and serves there now. He had been the social development manager in Huaral municipality, where he had run for mayor. Newly elected President Pedro Castillo in 2021 appointed Sánchez as Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism. Campaigning now, Sánchez calls for a constituent assembly, support for local economies, full access to education, reform of Peru’s large informal economy, and community-based tourism.
Keiko Fujimori, leader of her Popular Force party, served in Peru’s Congress (2006-2011). She is the daughter of dictatorial president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), who died in 2024. She promises “to confront the security crisis with an iron fist.” Degrees obtained from Boston University and Columbia University testify to her U.S. ties.
Fujimori gained clearance for another presidential campaign only after judicial authorities suspended her lengthy trial in January 2025 on charges of money laundering and illegally taking funds from Brazil’s giant Odebrecht construction company. She had spent months intermittently in pre-trial detention.
Roberto Sánchez’s situation is precarious. No progressive political movement has achieved national political power in Peru via elections, with one exception. Pedro Castillo won the election to the presidency in 2021. Sánchez follows in his path.
Castillo’s enemies in Congress removed him from office in 2022. A “vacancy vote” in Peru’s Congress led to Castillo’s dismissal and his current 11-year prison term. Since 2016, no Peruvian president has completed a full five-year term of office. Castillo’s enemies used legal pretexts,........