“Today I reaffirm my decision and willingness to assume all risks. I want to work again for all Peruvians,” he declares.
The former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) reaffirmed this Sunday his decision to run in the 2026 presidential elections, just days after he reappeared in the political arena of the Andean country by announcing that he had joined the Fuerza Popular political party. , founded by his daughter Keiko Fujimori.
“Today I reaffirm my decision and willingness to assume all the risks. I want to work again for all Peruvians,” reads a letter that the former president addressed to the newspaper ‘El Comercio’ and that he shared through his profile in the social network
Fujimori, 85, is hospitalized after suffering a hip fracture as a result of a fall in his room. That is why he has indicated that he is in a local clinic waiting for a surgery from which he is “confident” that he will recover “successfully” and has added that he is “really looking forward to returning home to move forward.” “.
His daughter, after the publication of the letter, when asked in an interview with the Peruvian television network Canal N about whether the former president aims to run as a candidate for the Presidency or the Senate, answered that “all possibilities are open.” “.
“Later, within the family, he will tell us what his wish is. Then, obviously, these procedures will be determined in the party’s institutional bodies,” he explained, after acknowledging that his father is recovering from the recent fall. and who has other health problems.
While experts affirm that Fujimori cannot appear because he is convicted and has a civil reparation fine that he has not paid, the leader of Fuerza Popular has stressed that her father “is innocent of the charges for which he has been sentenced.” .
“But beyond my position and my condition, there is a legal debate. I understand it. I have been following it. (There are) positions in favor of a candidacy (…) or positions against (…). I do not “I am a lawyer, therefore it is my responsibility to wait for this debate to continue to be elucidated. And it will be the electoral bodies that finally define this possibility,” she declared.
The former leader of the country was released from prison in December 2023, where he had been since 2007 serving a 25-year sentence for the massacre of dozens of civilians. He benefited in 2017 from a humanitarian pardon granted by the then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, because his legal team alleged health problems due to his advanced age, however, Justice overthrew him months later, until the final resolution of the year. past.
In addition to the 25-year sentence, Fujimori has another criminal trial ahead of him, along with several of his Health Ministers, for the forced sterilizations of almost 350,000 women and 25,000 men from different indigenous communities during his government. He did not repent for his crimes nor did he pay civil reparation, which the Attorney General’s Office estimated at 57 million soles (14 million euros).
During years of judicial litigation, (the Constitutional Court ordered his release despite the request to postpone the measure by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) Human Rights defense organizations warned of the seriousness of his crimes when determining his release.
