Peru

Footage shows firefighters dousing the wreckage of a crashed tourist aircraft in southern Peru. Police said the plane was carrying 13 people when it went down while flying over the ancient archeological site of Nazca Lines.

The former president and his wife were sentenced to 15 years last year after being convicted of money laundering.

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has been released from prison after the country’s Constitutional Court overturned his 15-year prison sentence for a case linked to a globe-spanning corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Humala was serving his sentence at a special detention facility in eastern Lima that houses several of Peru’s jailed former leaders. The 64-year-old and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were found guilty last year of money laundering for receiving illegal contributions from Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, and the Venezuelan government in two presidential campaigns.

Heredia subsequently received asylum in Brazil.

“It has been decided to declare the entire criminal proceedings against Ollanta Moises Humala Tasso null and void,” read the Constitutional Court ruling dated July 15 and published on Thursday.

Humala, a former army officer who led the country from 2011 to 2016, was the first Peruvian ex-leader to face trial in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, which has also tainted three other former presidents.

He had filed a habeas corpus petition – a legal request asking the court to examine whether he had been unlawfully imprisoned – which the Constitutional Court declared to be “well-founded” because it found that he had been convicted for conduct that was not legally defined as money laundering when the campaign contributions were received.

The former president’s lawyer, Wilfredo Pedraza, said that his side has received the judgement “with considerable satisfaction”.

In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to pay $3.5bn in penalties after having spent $788m in bribes to foreign leaders and government officials in order to win infrastructure projects across Latin America.

Odebrecht admitted to having paid at least $29m in bribes to Peruvian officials between 2005 and 2014.

July 19 (UPI) — Extensive search and rescue missions were underway in Peru’s mountainous central Andean highlands Sunday following a deadly 5.1 magnitude earthquake.

The Peruvian National Police said they were actively conducting search, rescue, emergency response and security operations in the Junin region after Saturday’s temblor, which had its epicenter in the Chongos Bajo district of Chupaca province, about 200 miles east of Lima.

More than 250 personnel from the Peru’s emergency services, K-9 and medical units, as well as other specialized teams, were also in the rugged highlands as the government issued a preliminary report of five dead, 21 injured and more than 300 affected by the quake.

It struck at 9:21 p.m. Saturday local time.

“I deeply regret the consequences of the earthquake that occurred in Junín,” Peruvian President-elect Keiko Fujimori said in a statement. “I express my most heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have passed away and my solidarity with those who have been affected.”

The national volunteer firefighting corps were similarly dispatched to the region to aid the National Police in search and rescue operations, debris removal, evacuations and pre-hospital care for those in the hardest-hit areas, the interior ministry said.

The health ministry, meanwhile, sent a brigade of specialists brigade to begin providing medical care to those affected, joining local teams already present in Junin.

“The Ministry of Health maintains continuous monitoring of the emergency and will continue to mobilize the human, logistical, and medical resources necessary to safeguard the lives and health of the affected population,” officials said.

Announcement comes days after Peru’s electoral agency certified right-wing Fujimori as winner in razor-thin race.

Left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez has conceded to Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential race, days after the electoral authority declared her the victor in last month’s run-off.

The statement on Monday caps an election season marred by logistical issues at polling sites, long vote counts and allegations of fraud.

Sanchez and his party said they “recognised ⁠⁠that the ⁠⁠National Elections Board had officially proclaimed the ⁠⁠electoral results”. Sanchez had said in June he would not recognise a Fujimori presidency and would instead launch “a movement of popular and patriotic resistance”.

Fujimori and Sanchez had progressed to the June 7 run-off after outpacing 33 other candidates in the April general election.

In the final vote count, certified by the National Jury of Elections (JNE) last week, Fujimori defeated Sanchez by a razor-thin margin, winning about 9,223,000 votes to 9,173,000 for Sanchez.

Sanchez, a member of Peru’s Congress, had fostered support among rural and indigenous Peruvians, following closely in the footsteps of former president Pedro Castillo, who was impeached and arrested in 2022 after attempting to dissolve Congress.

He even wore the same style of wide-brimmed straw hat, common in the northern Andean region, as Castillo on the campaign trail.

Among other platforms, he called for the overhaul of Peru’s constitution to grant greater recognition and autonomy to the country’s varied ethnic groups.

He had also called for state oversight of natural resources and for increased taxes on the highest earners.

As the run-off vote count stretched on for weeks, 57-year-old Sanchez repeatedly alleged voting irregularities and fraud. Election monitors countered the claims, saying no proof had emerged.

Fujimori ran on a tough-on-crime platform, but vowed to unite the country after her win.

She was among several right-wing candidates supported by the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has taken a militaristic approach to fighting organised crime in Latin America.

The 51-year-old is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for human rights abuses before he died in 2024.

Peru has seen years of political churn, with Fujimori set to become Peru’s ninth president in 10 years when she takes office later this month.

She begins amid a period of government transformation, with the country set to reconstitute its legislature into two bodies, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

The Senate was dissolved in the 1990s by Fujimori’s father, creating a unicameral system that critics charged made impeaching a president too easy and common.

Daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori says country is closer to ‘order and hope’ after prolonged vote count.

Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is ahead in Peru’s presidential race as the country’s electoral authorities concluded their tally of the vote count after a contentious run-off, which her leftist rival has refused to recognise.

Fujimori said on Monday that she would continue to wait for an official announcement from Peru’s National Jury of Elections (JNE) after the ONPE electoral authority finished a review of contested ballots.

“We are getting closer and closer to embarking on a path of order and hope for all Peruvians,” Fujimori said in a social media post.

Fujimori, the daughter of the late former President Alberto Fujimori – who was jailed for human rights abuses – has pledged to “unite the country” after the final tally showed her beating leftist rival Roberto Sanchez by 50.13 percent to his 49.86 percent, with 100 percent of the votes counted.

The JNE is scheduled to officially announce a winner on July 3, following a drawn-out vote count that has lasted for weeks.

But the results of the June 7 run-off are unlikely to bring an end to Peru’s years of political crisis, which have seen nine presidents take office in just 10 years before being voted out or removed from their post.

Sanchez has refused to recognise the results of the election, which he has said was marred by irregularities and fraud. He has not provided evidence for those claims, but has called for protests to “defend the vote” and said he will file a legal challenge to appeal the official proclamation.

Such claims have become common in Peru, whose political system has become increasingly chaotic amid declining voter trust in elections and government institutions in recent years.

Many voters expressed frustration after the first round of voting in April, when logistical issues delayed voting in parts of the capital, Lima.

Election monitors have cautioned that there was no evidence of widespread fraud but acknowledged voter frustrations.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Peru’s capital Lima, said Fujimori has reacted to the result, saying she was very happy that the vote count has finished and would wait with “humility and prudence” until the official declaration of her victory.

“Keiko Fujimori is aware that she has just won by only 49,000 votes. She is not very popular in the country. She has lost three election bids,” Sanchez said.

Members of Fujimori’s party have said they now hope that her opponent, Roberto Sanchez, will recognise the results, she added.

The giveaway that Lima should be on every food lover’s wish list is not just that it is home to the reigning No. 1 restaurant in the world according to the most recent World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking. Maido in Lima’s famed Miraflores neighborhood, a longtime magnet for fine dining, is where chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura is transforming Peru’s traditional Nikkei cuisine, integrating the flavors of the Amazon in his own blockbuster style.

But it’s what’s happening one neighborhood over, just about three miles away in Lima’s Barranco district that make Peru’s capital more than a stopover for a single splurge meal on your way to Machu Picchu. The epicenter of the food lover’s Barranco is the garden-lush culinary complex, Casa Túpac, home to Virgilio Martinez’s Central, named to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ “Best of the Best” list after its No. 1 ranking in 2023, and to Pía León’s Kjolle, the current 50 Best’s No. 9 restaurant in the world.

Use these handy dining guides for all of your summer travel, near and far.

Beyond those walls, several other food hubs have emerged. There is the growing constellation of Barranco restaurants that chef Juan Luis Martínez runs with his wife, designer Michelle Sikic. Their Mérito is currently No. 26. on the World’s 50 Best list; Demo is a morning-to-night cafe with beautiful breakfast dishes; and more recently they opened Clon, with accessibly priced a la carte expressions of Martínez’s Venuezulan-Peruvian cuisine.

A few short blocks away are Ricardo Martins’ pair of restaurants, Siete, a romantic spot with beautiful food and cocktails, and La Perlita, devoted to the chef’s nostalgic take on criolla cuisine. Then there is the venerable Canta Rana, run by an Argentine devoted to soccer and ceviche, and, more recently, the Chilean and American partners who created a mecca for coffee and chocolate lovers.

This is just a hint of the culinary activity happening in one of the world’s great food cities.

It’s puzzling, then, why the Michelin guide doesn’t waive its requirement that tourist boards or local governments pay a fee to have its inspectors visit the city. On the other hand, Lima is doing just fine without Michelin stars.

See for yourself with your own visit to Lima. The suggestions that follow are a delicious way to begin your adventure.

June 17 (UPI) — Peru’s Ministry of Culture denounced the total destruction of the Triple Spiral pre-Hispanic geoglyph, a figure more than 1,000 years old linked to water worship, located within a protected archaeological zone in the north of the country.

The agency said specialists and National Police officers confirmed the intentional removal of the geoglyph through manual alteration of the terrain in the Quebrada Santo Domingo Archaeological Zone, in the district of Laredo, La Libertad region, about 350 miles north of Lima.

“The sequence of events suggests that this attack may constitute retaliation against the recovery and protection actions carried out by the state in defense of cultural heritage,” the ministry said in a statement.

The destruction occurred just days after an operation conducted by cultural, municipal and police authorities to evict illegal occupants who had installed makeshift structures within the Quebrada Santo Domingo Archaeological Zone.

During the operation, authorities removed improvised shacks and fences and detected suspected illegal agricultural activities inside the protected area. They are also investigating the possible clandestine installation of pipelines to extract water from the Chavimochic canal, one of Peru’s most important irrigation and hydraulic infrastructure megaprojects.

Authorities also identified five individuals who claimed to be guarding the land on behalf of an alleged possessor. The Decentralized Directorate of Culture said those individuals are part of the investigation being conducted by prosecutors.

The Triple Spiral was considered one of the principal archaeological symbols of Quebrada Santo Domingo.

The figure measured more than 65 feet meters in length and 19 feet in width and had been associated by researchers with ceremonial practices related to the management and worship of water among pre-Hispanic societies on Peru’s northern coast.

Sandra Barrantes, deputy director of the Decentralized Directorate of Culture of La Libertad, described the incident as an “irreparable loss” for Peru and for the world’s cultural heritage, according to Noticias RPP.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation to identify those responsible and determine possible administrative, civil and criminal penalties.

Quebrada Santo Domingo covers more than 1,500 hectares protected by the state and preserves evidence of human occupation from approximately 11,000 years ago through the 15th century.

The complex contains petroglyphs, ceremonial roads and remains associated with the Cupisnique, Moche and Chimu cultures.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the Triple Spiral was one of the site’s most representative features, and its cultural significance had been compared to that of the famous Nazca geoglyphs in southern Peru. Its destruction completely erased archaeological evidence linked to the worship and management of water in ancient societies on Peru’s northern coast.

June 6 (UPI) — Peru will choose its next president Sunday in a runoff election between Keiko Fujimori, leader of the right-wing Popular Force party, and Roberto Sánchez, candidate of the leftist coalition Together for Peru.

Nearly 28 million Peruvians are eligible to vote for what will be the country’s ninth president in just 10 years, a figure that reflects Peru’s deep institutional crisis and political fragmentation.

Recent polls show Sánchez and Fujimori in a statistical tie, meaning the final outcome could depend on undecided voters and the share of blank ballots.

For many observers, the central question is not only who will win the presidency, but whether Peru can break the cycle of political instability that has defined the past decade.

Fujimori’s candidacy once again places Fujimorismo at the center of Peruvian politics. The daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori remains one of the country’s most influential and polarizing political figures. Sunday’s vote marks her fourth consecutive attempt to win the presidency in a runoff election.

Sánchez, meanwhile, is a far less familiar figure outside Peru. His campaign has evolved throughout the race and has sought to appeal to supporters of former President Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office in 2022 after attempting to dissolve Congress.

Fujimori maintains a strong advantage in Lima, while Sánchez dominates much of the country’s interior, particularly in the Andean regions.

The election is taking place amid growing public frustration with Peru’s political system.

Beyond the traditional divide between Fujimorismo and anti-Fujimorismo that has shaped much of Peru’s politics over the past two decades, several analysts argue that the country’s deeper problem is a broader crisis of political representation.

Luis Lira, a researcher at the International Affairs Observatory at Finis Terrae University in Chile, said Peru has become one of the clearest examples of a “democracy without parties,” where political organizations have lost their ability to channel voter demands and have been replaced by highly personalized leadership.

“The presence of two candidates viewed as strongmen demonstrates the deterioration of political parties,” Lira told UPI.

Raúl La Torre, a Peruvian academic and professor at the University of the Andes in Chile, offered a similar assessment.

According to La Torre, Peru enters the runoff burdened by a representation crisis that has deepened over the past decade. Political parties remain weak, Congress continues to suffer from low public trust and the gap between citizens and political elites continues to widen.

Carlos Escaffi, founder of consulting firm Relaxiona Internacional, said the Fujimorismo versus anti-Fujimorismo divide remains relevant, but is no longer sufficient to explain voting behavior.

Issues such as public security, informal employment, economic opportunity and growing rejection of the traditional political class now play a larger role in shaping voter preferences, he said.

“The demand for order, security and concrete solutions to everyday problems appears to be playing an increasingly important role in voters’ decisions,” Escaffi told UPI.

Analysts also point to Peru’s political structure as a factor behind its persistent instability.

Juan Jiménez, a former prime minister under President Ollanta Humala, said the country has long experienced a contentious relationship between the executive branch and Congress, marked by frequent confrontations and repeated efforts to remove presidents from office.

“In the last 10 years we have had eight presidents. On Sunday we will have the ninth,” Jiménez told UPI.

He attributed part of the crisis to the repeated use of constitutional mechanisms that allow Congress to remove presidents from office, as well as to the country’s fragmented political landscape.

Questions over whether the eventual winner will be widely accepted have become another source of concern.

Polls released in recent days suggest an extremely close race, increasing the likelihood of legal challenges or accusations from the losing side.

Jiménez said the country’s first challenge after Sunday’s vote will be ensuring that all political actors accept the result.

“It is highly foreseeable that there will be a conflict over the outcome,” he said, noting that narrow margins in previous elections have repeatedly fueled allegations of fraud.

The former prime minister also argued that problems during the first round undermined confidence in electoral authorities and could contribute to renewed disputes once the final results are announced.

Escaffi, however, urged caution regarding claims of fraud. He said there is no evidence to support allegations of a systematic effort to alter the popular vote.

“What we have seen is that the fraud narrative has become a political tool used by different sectors to mobilize their supporters or preemptively challenge the results,” he said.

Political analyst and commentator Jorge “Coco” Salazar expressed a similar view, saying either candidate could challenge the outcome if the margin is extremely narrow.

Salazar told UPI that the climate of mistrust generated during the first round has created conditions for electoral disputes to once again dominate the political debate.

Regardless of who wins, analysts agree the next president will face structural challenges that extend far beyond the campaign.

The most pressing task will be restoring governability in a country where political confrontation has become routine.

According to La Torre, that will require building minimum agreements with a fragmented Congress, strengthening weakened institutions and rebuilding public confidence.

Corruption and public security also rank among voters’ top concerns.

Lira said Peruvians increasingly demand greater transparency and accountability from the political class, while rising crime has become one of the country’s most pressing social issues.

Escaffi warned that Peru’s ability to maintain economic stability despite years of political turmoil should not be taken for granted.

Institutions such as the Central Reserve Bank of Peru and the country’s fiscal discipline have helped cushion the effects of repeated political crises, he said, but prolonged uncertainty could eventually affect investment, economic growth and job creation.

Several analysts also believe the restoration of a bicameral legislature could help counter the institutional drift behind the recent instability.

Jiménez said the return of the Senate may make it more difficult to carry out rapid presidential removals and could create greater opportunities for political deliberation.

Even so, few experts are optimistic about a quick resolution to Peru’s political troubles.

“The election offers an opportunity to begin a more stable period, but by itself it does not guarantee that outcome,” La Torre said.

For many observers, the question that will remain after Sunday’s vote is not simply who wins the presidency but whether Peru’s political system can regain the legitimacy and stability it has steadily lost over the past decade.

May 15 (UPI) — Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes finalized the official vote count Friday after 33 days of scrutiny and legal challenges, confirming that right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez will compete in a presidential runoff June 7.

The final tally of the mid-April voting placed Fujimori first with 17.18% of valid votes.

The main battle centered on second place, where Sánchez secured 12.03% and narrowly overtook conservative candidate Rafael López Aliaga, who finished third with 11.90%, trailing by just 21,210 votes.

“The race for the runoff produced a scenario similar to 2021, with a contest between the left and the right,” electoral law expert José Tello told RPP Noticias.

The dispute over second place shifted dramatically as vote counting progressed in Peru’s remote regions. Early results favored López Aliaga, whose strongest support came from Lima, the capital and largest urban voting bloc.

However, after more than 90% of ballots had been processed, returns from rural and highland regions in southern Peru boosted Sánchez’s candidacy, repeating voting patterns seen in the 2021 election, when then-little-known rural teacher Pedro Castillo advanced to the runoff and later won the presidency.

The final outcome depended on Peru’s Special Electoral Juries, which reviewed 653 disputed and challenged voting records before electoral authorities could release the definitive results.

After the official figures were announced, López Aliaga led a protest outside the headquarters of Peru’s National Jury of Elections, rejecting the outcome, alleging fraud and demanding an international audit, according to Diario Gestión.

With the official count completed, Peru’s National Jury of Elections is expected to formally certify the runoff candidates Sunday ahead of the second-round vote that will determine who governs the country for the 2026-2031 constitutional term.

Prosecutor calls for leftist candidate to be jailed for five years and four months over false financial disclosures.

Peru’s public prosecutor’s office has accused leftist presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez of financial crimes, calling for him to be imprisoned for five years and four months.

The charges, unsealed on Tuesday, came hours after electoral authorities confirmed Sanchez was on track to advance to the country’s presidential run-off, scheduled for June 7.

According to the El Comercio newspaper, prosecutors allege that Sanchez, who is the candidate of the Juntos por el Peru (Together for Peru) party, filed false financial disclosures with the National Office of Electoral Processes related to campaign contributions between 2018 and 2020.

Prosecutors say Sanchez and his brother, William Sanchez, received more than 280,000 Peruvian soles ($81,720) in contributions and membership fees that were never disclosed in the party’s financial filings.

Sanchez is also accused of making false statements in administrative proceedings.

In addition to the jail term, prosecutors were also seeking a “permanent disqualification” of Sanchez from holding the office of president for the Juntos por el Peru party, according to El Comercio.

Sanchez’s lawyer rejected the accusations, telling local outlet RPP that the party’s treasurer, not Sanchez, was responsible for its financial filings.

A judge is expected to decide on May 27 whether the case will go to trial.

The charges emerged as vote counting from last month’s first-round election showed Sanchez advancing to a run-off against conservative rival Keiko Fujimori.

With 99.76 percent of ballots counted, Fujimori, the daughter of late former President Alberto Fujimori and a four-time presidential candidate, held a commanding lead with 17.17 percent of the vote.

Sanchez, running with the backing of jailed former President Pedro Castillo, stood at 12 percent, narrowly ahead of ultra-conservative former Lima Mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga at 11.91 percent, a margin of roughly 15,000 votes.

The final result is expected by May 15.