LIMA, Peru — Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets across Lima, Arequipa, and Cusco on Saturday in one of the largest anti-Fujimori demonstrations since the former dictator Alberto Fujimori’s regime ended in 2000, blocking highways and clashing with police just weeks before the country’s presidential runoff.
The protests erupted as far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori — daughter of the imprisoned former president — consolidated her position in the June 7 runoff against center-left economist Antauro Humal, whose own campaign has drawn comparisons to her father’s authoritarian style of governance.
Demonstrators in Lima’s historic center carried signs reading “No to the Return of the Dictatorship” and “Never Again Fujimori” as police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds near the presidential palace. At least 47 people were arrested, according to Peru’s national police. Multiple injuries were reported.
The unrest follows an acrimonious campaign in which Fujimori’s opponents have raised alarms about her father’s legacy of human rights abuses, media suppression, and economic shock therapy. A 2018 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report documented more than 25,000 deaths and 69,000 cases of human rights violations during Alberto Fujimori’s decade in power.
Arequipa saw some of the largest turnouts, with an estimated 30,000 people filling the city’s central plaza. In Cusco, indigenous rights organizations called for an outright boycott of the runoff, saying neither candidate represents their interests.
“We cannot allow a family that destroyed our democracy to return to power,” said Maria Elena Castillo, a Lima schoolteacher who brought her two children to Saturday’s protest. “The scars of the 1990s have not healed.”
Fujimori’s campaign has sought to distance herself from her father’s most controversial decisions, promising to respect democratic institutions and human rights. But critics point to her refusal to publicly condemn the 1992 auto-golpe, or to acknowledge the many victims of her father’s security state.
International observers have expressed concern about the level of polarization in the race. The OAS electoral mission said in a statement it was “monitoring the situation closely” and called on all parties to “refrain from inflammatory rhetoric.”
Peru’s electoral authority has scheduled the June 7 runoff. Both candidates have pledged to respect the result, though Fujimori’s opponents have questioned whether she would accept an unfavorable outcome given her father’s history of defying democratic norms.
The protests come as Peru faces a mounting economic crisis, with inflation at 8.2 percent and copper exports — the country’s main revenue source — declining amid softening global demand. Analysts say the winner will inherit a country with significant social unrest and a polarized political landscape.
— Carlos Mendez, Americas Breaking News.