Keiko Fujimori Declared President of Peru – Victory by Narrow Margin

The election underscores Peru's deep political polarization. Since the beginning of 2016, the country has had nine presidents, and over the past ten years eight presidents have alternated at the helm. For years, Peru has been marked by an almost uninterrupted conflict between parliament and government, which has repeatedly led to impeachments and premature changes of power.

Narrow Result and a Divided Country

Fujimori announced that she would crack down on organized crime as forcefully as other right-wing leaders in the region. The rating agency Moody's stated that a government under Fujimori would maintain political continuity and strengthen investor confidence.

The election outcome fits into a broader regional trend: of the past 16 presidential elections in Latin America, 13 were won by candidates to the right of center. Argentina, Paraguay, and Ecuador have, since 2023, had right-wing presidents again or continuing in office, while Chile, Bolivia, and Honduras followed in 2025 and 2026. Counter-examples include Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala, and Mexico, as well as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Rightward Shift in Latin America

In Colombia, too, the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella prevailed at the end of June, defeating Iván Cepeda after four years of left-wing government. In Bolivia, just a few months after Christian Democrat Rodrigo Paz took office, weeks of protests and blockades of the capital La Paz erupted. In Chile, meanwhile, the poll numbers of the ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast collapsed just a few weeks after he took office.

Latin America expert Christopher Sabatini wrote in "Foreign Policy" magazine that frustration is high because previous governments have neither delivered better social systems nor tangibly improved inequality and security. Henning Suhr of the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer Foundation described Latin America as a "Pendel-Kontinent" – voters punish incumbents regardless of their ideology.

Steven Levitsky, a professor at Harvard University, told Reuters that it is rare to see "eine so große Anzahl von Regierungen, die ideologisch so nah beieinanderliegen gesehen wie derzeit". The current political alignment is an "ungewöhnlichen Sternkonstellation für Trump" – a reference to the U.S. administration's new National Security Strategy, which explicitly defines Latin America as a U.S. sphere of influence.

Security Policy as a Common Theme

A central common theme among the right-wing presidents in the region is a hardline security policy and the handling of illegal migration. El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, who tackles gang crime with mega-prisons and mass incarcerations without regular trials, has dubbed himself the "coolest dictator in the world". In Argentina, meanwhile, a multi-billion-dollar financial aid package helped Javier Milei survive the midterm elections. Brazil faces regularly scheduled presidential elections in the fall.

Peru's political situation remains fragile even after the runoff. The vanishingly small margin between the candidates, Sanchez's refusal to recognize the result, and the already chronic conflict between the branches of government suggest that Fujimori will begin her term in a highly polarized environment.