Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Fujimori 藤森 恵子
President of the Popular Force
Incumbent
Assumed office 2010
Preceded by	Position established
First Lady of Peru
In office 23 August 1994 – 22 November 2000
President	Alberto Fujimori
Succeeded by	Nilda Jara de Paniagua
Personal details
Born	Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi 25 May 1975 Lima, Peru
Political party	Popular Force (2010–present)
Other political affiliations	Alliance for the Future (2006–2010)
Spouse(s)	Mark Villanella
Children	2
Alma mater	Stony Brook University Boston University Columbia University
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkeiko soˈfi.a fuxiˈmoɾi iˈɣutʃi]; Japanese: 藤森 恵子, Fujimori Keiko Japanese: [ɸɯdʑimoɺi kéːko] or [ɸɯdʑimoɾi kéːko]; born May 25, 1975)^[1] is a Peruvian Fujimorist politician, daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori^[2] and Susana Higuchi. She served as First Lady, from 1994 to 2000, after her parents divorced, becoming the youngest First Lady in the history of the Americas.^[2] She then became a member of the Peruvian legislature. Fujimori leads the center-right party Fuerza Popular, and lost her bid for the presidency in the 2011 Peruvian election runoff of June 5, 2011.

Early life

Keiko Fujimori graduated from Peru's Catholic School Colegio Sagrados Corazones Recoleta (Recoleta Academy of the Sacred Hearts) in 1992. The following year, she travelled to the United States to pursue a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. She began her studies at Stony Brook University, and graduated in 1997 from Boston University. She received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2006 .

Her parents divorced in 1994. Her mother, Higuchi, said that she was subjected to repeated efforts to silence her. In 2001, she told investigators probing the corruption of the Fujimori years that she had been tortured "five hundred times" by the intelligence services of the Peruvian Army.^[3] Her father denied that Higuchi had been tortured. He said the scars on her back and neck were not from torture but from a traditional Japanese herbal treatment called moxibustion. In August 1994, after the divorce of her parents, Keiko was appointed First Lady of Peru. At 19 years of age and still a student, she became the youngest First Lady of the Americas. From April 1994 to November 2000, she assumed the administration of Fundación por los Niños del Perú (Foundation for the Children of Peru), created Fundación Peruana Cardioinfantil (Peruvian Foundation for Infant Cardiology), which she presided from 1996 to 2006, and dedicated her activities to help low-income families nationwide. She summoned the Peruvian business community to contribute to her social projects.

Political career

Keiko Fujimori participated in several international assemblies, such as the Summit of Spouses of Heads of States and Government of the Americas in Canada and Chile, and the Cumbre Regional para la Infancia (Regional Summit for Infancy) in Colombia.

After her father fled to Japan amid a corruption scandal,^[4] Keiko stayed in Peru until 2004 when she pursued an MBA at Columbia Business School.^[5] In 2004, Fujimori married Mark Villanella, a United States citizen who also acquired Peruvian citizenship in 2009. In 2005, Keiko interrupted her studies and returned to Peru after an extradition process was initiated on her father. She became the leader of the Fujimorista Political Group and announced her father's candidacy in the April 2006 Peruvian presidential election, though he was forbidden to participate in any political activity until 2011 under a congressional ban.^[6] In April 2006, while her father was detained in neighboring Chile, Fujimori was elected to the Peruvian Congress with more votes than any winning candidate.^[7] She served as a Member of the National Congress from 28 July 2006 – 28 July 2011 for Lima.

As a congresswoman and leader of her political party, Fujimori defended the reforms executed by her father during the 1990s. She has led the opposition to the government of Alan García. She authored a law that restricts penitentiary benefits for those who commit serious offenses, and another law that obligates judges to give the highest sanctions to repeat offenders. Similarly, she passed a law that reduces the jail benefits to those who are protected under the "sincere confession" provision. Along with the Fujimorista Congress members, she worked on a project law in which the death penalty would also be applicable to some of the most severe crimes.^[8]

2011 presidential elections

During 2009, Keiko Fujimori began the collection of signatures in order to create her own political party, Fuerza 2011. In March 2010, the National Jury of Elections formally recognized the political party after more than one million signatures were collected, a number that surpassed the requirement by 854,000 signatures. Opinion polls granted her high possibilities to win the presidential elections in 2011;^[9] she was leading in presidential election polls as of July 2010.^[7]

Fujimori hired former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani as an advisor.^[10]

As of July 2010, Fujimori was noncommittal about whether she would pardon her father.^[9]

In the first round of the 2011 presidential elections, Fujimori received 23.551% of the votes, second only to Ollanta Humala, who received 31.699% of the votes. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was third with 18.512%. In the June 5 runoff, she lost to Humala, 51.34% to 48.66%.

2016 presidential elections

Fujimori is running for president in the middle of a controversial election. Two opponents were withdrawn from the electoral race prior to first round voting: one, and also her main rival, was disqualified over a technical error in the registration of his candidacy; the second opponent broke a new electoral law against vote-buying by handing out money to voters.^[11] Fujimori was accused of breaking the law mentioned, but was acquitted according to the statement issued from JEE: “The candidate has not engaged in the prohibited activities of offering or giving money or gifts in the aim of obtaining votes.”^[12]

Distancing herself from the controversial shadow of her father, she vowed to not follow his path, that she would provide reparations to women who were allegedly sterilized under her father and that she would not pardon him for his crimes, signing a document during a debate symbolizing her promise.^[13][14] She also stated that she would not run for another election if she won the presidency.^[14]

Polls indicate that she placed first in the first round of voting on April 10, garnering approximately 40% of the vote over opponents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Verónika Mendoza who each received approximately 20%.^[15] The second round is scheduled to take place on June 5.

Controversy

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) disclosed, through the Panama Papers, that Keiko Fujimori had two supporters and their families who were involved with the Mossack Fonseca firm.^[16] Jorge Yoshiyama, who was named in the scandal, denied his involvement.^[17]

References

1. The Fall of Fujimori: The Story, retrieved 2008-02-12.
2. "Factbox: Candidates and platforms in Peru race — Reuters". 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/world/americas/28peru.html?_r=0
4. "New extradition plea for Fujimori". BBC. 2004-10-15. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
5. NorthJersey.Com. "Peruvian candidate Fujimori courts votes in North Jersey", NorthJersey.Com (2010-07-22): "Fujimori, who holds a master degree in business administration from Columbia University".
6. "Fujimori 'to run for presidency'". BBC. 2004-09-20. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
7. "Fujimori Nostalgia Makes Daughter a Peru Presidential Contender". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. June 30, 2010. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
8. "Analysis: Two polarizing figures may meet in Peru run-off". Reuters. March 30, 2011.
9. Quigley, John (2010-07-01). "Fujimori Nostalgia in Peru Fuels Daughter's Candidacy". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. After previously vowing to pardon her father if elected, she now says she will wait for the Constitutional Court to rule on an appeal before deciding.
10. "Rudy Giuliani loses election – in Peru". Politico. June 6, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
11. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/peru-julio-guzman-disqualified-presidenital-election
12. http://perureports.com/2016/03/24/exonerated-keiko-fujimori-to-continue-in-perus-2016-elections/
13. "Peru's Fujimori signs pledge to avoid authoritarian ways of father". Reuters. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
14. Leon, Adriana; Kraul, Chris (10 April 2016). "Keiko Fujimori looks like a winner in the first round of Peru's presidential election". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
15. "Peru election: Keiko Fujimori leads in first round". BBC News. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
16. Fowks, Jacqueline (4 April 2016). "Financistas de Keiko Fujimori figuran en los ‘Panama Papers’". El País. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
17. "Jorge Javier Yoshiyama rechaza vínculos con Panamá Papers". rpp.pe. Retrieved 2016-04-15.

External links

• Biography in-depth by CIDOB Foundation (Spanish)
• Analysis of Keiko Fujimori by Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)