Fujimori pledges ‘iron fist’ on crime, announces 15% minimum wage increase
Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, is a four-time presidential candidate and leader of Peru’s largest political party. Over the past decade, only three of Peru’s presidents have been elected by popular vote. The rest came into office after their predecessors resigned or were removed by congress amid corruption scandals.
During her inauguration ceremony, Fujimori laid out an ambitious agenda. “My goal is not only to administer the state,” she said. “My main objective is to narrow the enormous social deficit that affects millions of Peruvians.”
She said she would reorganize social services to fight malnutrition in rural communities and announced the 15% minimum wage increase. Fujimori also said that the nation’s military will “temporarily” lead security operations in crime-afflicted areas and that she would focus on preparing the South American nation for the latest onset of El Niño, a weather pattern that warms ocean temperatures and often leads to flooding along Peru’s coast.
Fujimori centered her campaign on promises to improve security in a nation where extortion rackets have become a significant problem. She pledged to implement some policies adopted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and to build a megaprison modeled after the Cecot penitentiary in El Salvador. To guarantee judges’ safety, she has said she will implement reforms allowing them to hide their identities as they oversee criminal trials.
She has also promised to develop infrastructure by making it easier for government agencies to form partnerships with private investors.
Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who led the country in the 1990s, stabilized its economy and defeated terror groups but was later imprisoned for human rights abuses committed by the Peruvian military as his government took an authoritarian turn. He was pardoned in December 2023 and died in September the following year.
Her election victory confirmed a regional shift in South America toward conservative leadership. Her win, along with those of Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia and José Antonio Kast in Chile, followed a pattern in which conservatives have won seven major presidential elections in Latin America in recent years, most of them since the January 2025 inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, propelled by concerns over crime, immigration and slow economic growth.
Opposition leaders have asked Fujimori’s incoming government to reverse a series of laws approved by Peru’s last legislature, which critics say weaken efforts to fight organized crime. The laws eliminate preventive arrests, stop prosecutors from processing political parties involved in corruption under the same statutes as criminal groups and make it harder for police to confiscate the goods of criminal groups.
Opposition leaders are also asking the incoming government to create a commission to investigate the deaths of 50 civilians during anti-government protests in late 2022 and early 2023 following the removal of former President Pedro Castillo. During Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, some opposition lawmakers protested outside parliament, holding photos of people killed during the protests. Relatives of the dead have said they do not recognize Fujimori as president and that they are protesting her inauguration.
Fujimori was widely backed by voters in Peru’s capital and along the Pacific coast, but voters in the highlands, where there is a larger Indigenous population, overwhelmingly supported Roberto Sánchez, an ally of Castillo. Sánchez challenged the election results, arguing there were irregularities in how votes were counted at Peruvian consulates abroad, but electoral authorities dismissed his complaints.
Despite the political friction, Peru continues to be one of the most stable economies in Latin America. Its central bank has long kept the benchmark interest rate below 5%, and the government is known for a conservative approach toward public spending. Critics point out, however, a growing gap in living standards between coastal areas and communities in the Andean highlands.