Keiko Fujimori sworn in as president of Peru following narrow election victory

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s ninth president in a decade at an official ceremony in Lima on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse journalists observed.

The conservative 51-year-old won June’s run-off by fewer than 50,000 votes and will govern until 2031.

Fujimori, the daughter of a former president jailed for human rights abuses, will become Peru’s ninth president in a decade. The 51-year-old is hoping to stabilise the country’s turbulent politics.

Over the past decade, only three of Peru’s presidents have been elected by popular vote. The rest have come into office after their predecessors resigned or were removed by Congress amid corruption scandals.

Fujimori’s Popular Force party and its main ally will hold half the Senate seats as a new legislature is installed, which will make it harder for legislators to remove the new president.

Fujimori centred her campaign around promises to improve security in Peru, where extortion rackets have become a significant problem. She has also promised to develop infrastructure by making it easier for government agencies to form partnerships with private investors.

Fujimori also said during her campaign that she will fight crime with an “iron fist”, implementing some policies adopted by Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele. She said she would build a megaprison modelled after the notorious Cecot jail in El Salvador and will enable judges to hide their identities as they oversee criminal trials in an effort to guarantee their safety.