Former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori plans to run for presidency in 2026, daughter says

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Former President Alberto Fujimori, who was pardoned in December from his convictions for corruption and responsibility for the murder of 25 people, plans to run for Peru’s presidency for the fourth time in 2026, his eldest daughter said Sunday.

“My father and I have talked and decided together that he will be the presidential candidate,” Keiko Fujimori, leader of the right-wing Fuerza Popular party, said on social networks.

Despite the announcement, Peruvian law says anyone found guilty of acts of corruption cannot run for the office of president or vice president.

Fujimori, who was convicted in 2009 of involvement in the killing of 25 Peruvians during his administration in 1992, has three convictions on corruption charges and owes about $15 million to the Treasury, according to the Attorney General’s Office specializing in corruption crimes. The former president was extradited from Chile in 2007 and was in a Peruvian prison until last December.

Fujimori, 85, joined his daughter’s party in June, posting a video of the event in which he is seen with Keiko Fujimori along with the phrase: “The founding leader of Fujimorism takes his place in Fuerza Popular.”

Keiko Fujimori, 49, has herself run for president three times unsuccessfully. On July 1, a trial began against her on allegations of money laundering for which the prosecution is seeking a sentence of 30 years in prison.

Alberto Fujimori, who governed with an increasingly authoritarian hand in 1990-2000, has begun to rebuild his image on social networks since being released from prison in December under a 2017 presidential pardon that was revived by Peru’s Constitutional Court.

Fujimori reported in May that he had been diagnosed with a new tumor on his tongue that was considered malignant. In July, he underwent hip replacement surgery after a fall, his daughter said.