More than 30,000 protesters took the streets of Lima, Peru earlier this week to express their discontent on Keiko Fujimori’s campaign run. Keiko, the daughter of Peru’s controversial politician Alberto Fujimori, is facing a tough blow during her race after thousands of Peruvians came together and demanded the presidential hopeful to suspend her election.
Also present in the crowd were indigenous women who chanted, “we are the daughters of the indigenous you couldn’t sterilize.” In the 1990s, at least 300,000 Peruvians were sterilized without their consent; former president Alberto Fujimori oversaw these abuses.
According to The Guardian, investigations evolving around these cases were stopped even after the victims confessed they were being deprived of food and care, unless they submitted to the procedure. Keiko Fujimori claims only a few hundred were affected by her father’s decisions.
Sources report the strikers fear Fujimori will follow her father’s steps throughout her term, if she became elected on Sunday. However, Fox News Latino mentions she has vowed not to revive Fujimori’s regime blemished by corruption and human rights violations.
On April 7, 2009, Fujimori senior was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by security forces during his government’s battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s.
“I am crying inside,” Keiko Fujimori reportedly said after the verdict was read. “I am indignant; I had expected that justice would be served.”
Statistics show that the 40-year-old front-runner has been the people’s favorite for months. During a televised debate last Sunday, she signed a statement promising to respect institutions and human rights if she becomes elected.
“I know how to judge the history of my country,” Fujimori said. “I know which chapters should be repeated, and I’m very clear about which ones should not.”
“I don’t believe her at all,” a 19-year-old university student told Al Jazeera during Tuesday’s protest in Lima. “I’m young but I’m not stupid.”
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