On July 28, Peruvian Independence Day, hundreds of people protested outside the Presidential Palace in Lima, Peru. They were protesting the presidential inauguration of Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of dictator Alberto Fujimori who was president in the 1990s and ultimately used military force to kill hundreds of Andean people. The memory of his regime and its horrors is still present.
Outside the palace, protestors were expressing how Fujimori did not represent the working class of Peru. One woman protestor said, “She does not represent us. Today, they will kill us. They will blackmail us. We cannot live with this government.” Fujimori, like her father, will not give working-class people a Peru of safety, stability, or democracy. Referring to Fujimori and her record, another man held a sign saying, “President of Temu.” Temu is a low-cost, low-quality website used by many in the Americas. Bringing up corruption, another protestor held a sign with “Peru does not want rats [like] Fujimori, never again.”
In addition to working-class people, protestors included students from nearby universities, including the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, la Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal, la Universidad Nacional Enrique Guzmán y Valle, and Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú. Protestors also came from the National Organization of the Families and Victims of the Massacre of 2022-2023. This organization was started by family members of the people who died while protesting the government of Dina Boluarte between 2022-2023.
The inside of the palace seemed like another world: hundreds of politicians of Peru and elsewhere gathered to celebrate Fujimori’s inauguration. One of the politicians was President Javier Milei of Argentina, who has been enforcing policies that have deeply deteriorated the economic situation of working-class Argentinians. His presence speaks to whom Fujimori represents: the elite ruling class. As her speech made clear, to Fujimori, the working-class is simply a population that must be controlled, not listened to. Specifically, during her speech, she emphasized the need to cut down on crime in the country. She plans to deploy the military in “high-crime” areas, which are also some of the poorest parts of the country. So far, her ideas for what Peru needs sound eerily similar to that of her father. On Day One, Fujimori has already laid some of the groundwork for authoritarianism. She has local politicians who are ready to support her: in anticipation of protests against Fujimori’s inauguration, the mayor of Lima Renzo Reggiardo placed restrictions on mobilizations. He did not do so months prior when a far-right politician of his own political party called a demonstration in the city.
As Fujimori gets further into her presidential term, we will see more repression from the state, and more leniency for the capitalists. Working-class people will be blamed for the state of the economy. And neither Fujimori nor the capitalists will admit credit.
The people of Peru will need to stay strong and continue to fight against Fujimori and everything she represents. Fujimori supports Trump’s right-wing policies toward Latin America. As revolutionary socialists in the U.S., we must support the Peruvian workers’ struggle and calls for creation of an independent revolutionary working-class party!
