Peru's Keiko Fujimori announces fourth bid for presidency

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru’s late former President Alberto Fujimori, said on Thursday she will run for president in the April 2026 election, days after Peru’s constitutional court dismissed a money-laundering case against her.

Fujimori ran in Peru’s three most recent presidential elections, finishing each time as runner-up. Her last bid was in 2021, when she was defeated by leftist Pedro Castillo, who was later impeached and arrested in late 2022 after attempting to dissolve Congress.

She also lost the 2016 election to centre-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, after losing the 2011 vote to retired military officer Ollanta Humala.

This will be Fujimori’s first campaign since her father died in September 2024, months after being released from prison on a humanitarian pardon. He had served 16 years of a 25-year sentence for human-rights abuses committed during his 1990–2000 administration.

Peru’s constitutional court last week dismissed an investigation into Keiko Fujimori over alleged illegal campaign funds in 2011 and 2016, ruling that money-laundering charges were added to the penal code only in November 2016 and therefore could not be applied retroactively. The court noted that Fujimori had spent nearly 17 months in pre-trial detention during the probe.

In January 2025, a lower court had annulled an earlier trial, sending the case back to prosecutors for further investigation. Prosecutors had sought a 35-year prison sentence, alleging that Fujimori’s party and associates received up to $17 million in undeclared funds from sources including Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht (now Novonor) and Peruvian financial holding company Credicorp.

Fujimori, 49, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says the case was politically motivated. She has pledged to “restore stability and rebuild confidence in Peru’s democratic institutions” if elected.

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