Peru's Fujimori takes office promising military-led crackdown on crime

Peru's new president, Keiko Fujimori, has been inaugurated in Lima and pledged to deploy the armed forces to areas hit by crime, drug trafficking and illegal mining. In her address to Congress, she said the military would temporarily lead security operations during states of emergency until those territories could be returned to civilian control. The ceremony took place as Peru faces what she described as a severe security challenge, with gang violence, extortion and illegal mining spreading across the country.

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Fujimori took office on Tuesday after winning June's runoff by fewer than 50,000 votes. She is the country's ninth president in a decade, a sign of the political instability that has marked recent years. During the inauguration, a group of leftist lawmakers walked out in protest, underscoring the divisions surrounding her return to power.

The ceremony was attended by several Latin American leaders, including the presidents of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay. The new president's security agenda is closely tied to Peru's worst crime wave in decades. The supporting material says the country is dealing with local and foreign criminal gangs involved in contract killings and extortion, alongside illegal mining networks.

Fujimori has also proposed expelling undocumented people, creating courts with anonymous judges and requiring prisoners to work for their food. Those ideas suggest a broad hardline approach that goes beyond policing alone and could reshape the state's response to organised crime. The inauguration also revived debate over the Fujimori name in Peruvian politics.

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Keiko Fujimori ran her fourth presidential campaign under the shadow of her father, Alberto Fujimori, who ruled Peru in the 1990s and was later jailed for corruption and crimes against humanity. Her supporters and critics alike see her as carrying forward a confrontational style of politics, and the new security plan is likely to be judged against that legacy. The issue matters because Peru's institutions are already under strain, and the next government will need to show whether it can reduce violence without deepening political polarisation.

There are also practical limits on what the new administration can do quickly. Right-wing parties in Congress do not hold the majority needed to pass all of Fujimori's initiatives, although her Fuerza Popular party remains the largest bloc in the legislature. That means any military-led crackdown will depend not only on presidential orders but also on cooperation from lawmakers and security institutions.

The government has also said it will address the El Nino climate phenomenon, which meteorologists expect to be especially intense, adding another pressure point for the administration. What remains unclear is how far the armed forces will be deployed, how emergency powers will be applied and whether the proposed measures will reduce violence without causing abuses. It is also not yet clear which of Fujimori's wider proposals will gain enough support in Congress to become law.

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