When Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori arrived at a plaza in the city of Cajamarca for a recent campaign speech, she was met by a barrage of eggs thrown by activists who opposed her candidacy and called her a “murderer and thief.”
The activists were referring to the legacy of her father, Alberto Fujimori, who was Peru’s president from 1990-2000 and jailed in 2007 for a quarter century sentence after being found guilty of corruption and ‘crimes against humanity’.
A mock national vote one week before the upcoming June 5 election showed a tight race, with Fujimori leading her only opponent, left-leaning Ollanta Humala, by a single percentage point. For many voters, the election is not just about politics and economics – it’s a battle over memory and justice.
Despite her support at the polls, many human rights activists in Peru believe the younger Fujimori signals the resurgence of her father’s dictatorial policies, which involved torture, murder, rape, and the disappearance of thousands of Peruvians in the midst of a conflict involving the Shining Path guerrilla movement.
In reference to this conflict, Amnesty International stated “the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law.”
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