Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (born 25 May 1975) is a Peruvian politician.

Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi.

Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi was born on 25 May 1975 in the Jesús María district of Lima, the capital of Peru.

In addition, Fujimori would come to have three siblings: Kenji Gerardo (born May 1980), Hiro Alberto (born December 1976) and Sachi Marcela (born March 1979).

Fujimori, as the eldest child in her family, would often mediate between her parents – who experienced a conflicted marriage – and her siblings.

For primary and secondary education, Keiko Fujimori and her siblings attended Peruvian Catholic School Colegio Sagrados Corazones Recoleta (Recoleta Academy of the Sacred Hearts).

As she became a teenager, she would often feel that she needed to please her father, according to Vásquez de Velasco, and was able to use publicly funded presidential vehicles, including the presidential jet, for her personal events.

Such allegations placed Fujimori seventh in the list of money embezzled by heads of government active within 1984–2004.

Alberto Fujimori's revitalization of the economy of Peru and defeat of Shining Path, however, has resulted in continued support from some Peruvians, with the former president having a divisive legacy overall in the country.

Fujimori's parents are Japanese Peruvians; her father is former President of Peru Alberto Fujimori, who was elected in the 1990 Peruvian general election, and her mother is Susana Higuchi.

When her father was elected president in 1990, he was reportedly approached by the military to implement Plan Verde; a plan for Peru to adopt a neoliberal economy, to ethnically cleanse vulnerable populations and to establish control of the media.

With backing of the military, he later led a self-coup when he dissolved congress in 1992, violating the independence of the judiciary and the press, and began persecuting opponents.

Subsequently, with the approval of a new constitution, the president could be re-elected in the following elections.

Throughout her father's presidency, the government committed multiple human rights violations that included forced sterilizations, and extrajudicial killings during the internal conflict in Peru.

It was also alleged that Fujimori embezzled between US$600 million and US$2 billion through graft.

In the years after their separation, Susana said that she was subjected to torture at least five-hundred times between 1992 and 2000, telling the press that Alberto had ordered his partner Vladimiro Montesinos to execute her, though Montesinos said he refused on the ground of being a devout Catholic.

As first lady, she received three main accusations: that she diverted clothing donated through charity by Japanese-Peruvians, a controversy that even made it before Supreme Court of Peru; that she ordered the Government Palace's rooms painted pink; and the perceived betrayal, as it was seen by many opposition members, when she refused to defend her mother who had been denounced and persecuted by her father.

Fujimori responded to the last criticism by alleging that the accusations of tortures made by her mother were a "legend."

She would later reconcile with her mother, who then assisted her with her presidential campaigns.

After her father's coup, Fujimori graduated from secondary school and travelled to the United States in 1993 to pursue a bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Stony Brook University.

The cost of Fujimori and her sibling's studies in the United States, estimated to be about $918,000 in total, was reportedly funded by Chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) Vladimiro Montesinos, with his secretary Matilde Pinchi Pinchi saying Keiko personally received money at SIN facilities while General Julio Salazar would travel to New York to deliver funds on occasion.

La Prensa would later report that a foundation in Panama was established, received bank transfers from Montesinos' account and paid for Fujimori's studies at Boston University.

From August 1994 to November 2000, she held the role of First Lady of Peru, during her father's administrations.

In 1994, Fujimori's father stripped her mother of her title of First Lady of Peru with the intent of silencing her after she accused him publicly and in the Peruvian Judicial Branch of kidnapping, torture and corruption, this led to the two separating in the same year, taking with them the last vestiges of her mother's titles.

One day shortly after, Fujimori received a call from her father while studying in the United States, with the president asking his daughter to attend a formal dinner in Miami, though this quickly turned into a multi-day trip.

On 23 August 1994, Keiko stopped her studies at Stony Brook and returned to Peru, where her father appointed her as First Lady of Peru, the youngest first lady in the Americas.

Fujimori's father reportedly used her as an accessory instead of having her perform notable functions, choosing his daughter to fill the office because she was obedient.

While serving as First Lady, Fujimori downplayed the allegations raised by her mother, ignoring reports by the press and international groups.

On top of her symbolic functions, from April 1994 to November 2000, her father made her head of Fundación por los Niños del Perú (Foundation for the Children of Peru), which is usually led by the first lady, and she created Fundación Peruana Cardioinfantil (Peruvian Foundation for Infant Cardiology) for children with congenital heart diseases.

Fujimori's parents formally divorced in 1996.

She would go on to graduate from the university in May 1997, completing her studies in Business Administration.

In 1998, as her father intended to run for an unprecedented and at that point unconstitutional third term, Fujimori came out in a strong declaration against her father's plan, supporting a plan made by the opposition.

She put out a statement: "As a daughter, I would prefer that my father rest, but as a citizen, I believe he is what the country requires."

Fujimori still helped her father despite her reservations in his reelection campaign in April 2000, as she had done in his 1995 campaign.

In November 2000, her father fled to Japan and resigned from the presidency while visiting Brunei once news came of a massive corruption scandal.

Shortly after the scandal broke, Fujimori had asked her father to not renounce anything and to return to Peru to defend himself before a court of law.

Fujimori was forced to leave the Government Palace of Peru on 21 November 2000 after the Congress of Peru officially vacated her father Alberto's position as president of Peru.

Her mother, now a member of congress, offered Fujimori to stay with her, though Fujimori refused and preferred to stay with her aunt Juana Fujimori beside her father's family.

She has served as the leader of the Fujimorist political party Popular Force since 2010, and was a congresswoman representing the Lima Metropolitan Area, from 2006 to 2011.

Fujimori ran for president in the 2011, 2016, and 2021 elections, but was defeated each time in the second round of voting.