“Fujimori never again,” said relatives of the victim …

From Lima

“Fujimori never again,” chanted the crowd. who was mobilized in the streets of downtown Lima. They raised photos of the missing, murdered, during the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), they waved posters with inscriptions against the authoritarianism and corruption that embodies the Fujimori that now Keiko, the daughter and heiress policy of the imprisoned ex-dictator, threatens to return to power during the June 6 elections. There were also banners on rejection of neoliberalism, that Fujimorism imposed three decades ago and whose continuity Keiko defends and the right which has closed ranks behind the candidate. Tens of thousands of people mobilized in Lima and in various regions of the country in rejection of the candidacy of the Fujimorist restorationat. The protests against Keiko have also taken place in cities abroad.

For the third election in a row, Fujimori is in the second round and can return to power, and once again, citizens’ groups are mobilizing to block the passage. Keiko was defeated in the 2011 and 2016 elections, but the threat returns, like an evil that refuses to go away. Two weeks before the elections, despite the great media support for her and a massive campaign against her rival, the leftist professor and trade unionist Pedro Castillo, the polls do not favor her.. A survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), published this Sunday, gives Castillo 44.8% and Keiko 34.4%. A week ago the IEP gave the left-wing candidate a lesser advantage, 6.9 points, and with a downward trend, other pollsters gave a three-point difference in favor of Castillo and with the same tendency of an approach from Keiko. This latest poll reverses that trend and consolidates Castillo in the first place. But two weeks is an eternity in the Peruvian elections and nothing is defined.

A large banner on which was written “For Peru, Keiko does not go” opened the great mobilization against Fujimori in Lima. Among the crowd, behind the photos of the victims of the Fujimori regime, a sign was raised that read “They will not erase our memory”. Others read: “For justice and dignity, Fujimori never again”, “Let us vote for change and against corruption. Keiko is wrong”. Messages and slogans reminded Keiko of the legal accusation she faces of money laundering, criminal organization and obstructing justice for the illegal financing of her campaigns. 2011 and 2016. In the coming months, he will face a trial and a possible 30-year sentence, but his electoral victory would give him presidential immunity.

A young woman held up a banner in which she wrote “Let fear not erase your hope”, while shouting “a conscientious people, do not choose the criminals”, following the chorus of the crowd. The reference to fear is a response to the massive campaign of fear against the leftist candidate, which calls for voting “against the threat of communism”. and that, in an attack on memory and reason, he intends to pass Keiko, the candidate who defends his father’s dictatorship, as a supposed defender of democracy.

At the forefront of this mobilization were the relatives of the victims of the dictatorship of Fujimori, sentenced to 25 years for crimes against humanity and corruption. Among them was Gisela Ortiz, sister of one of nine La Cantuta University students kidnapped and murdered by a death squad made up of members of the military operating under the orders of the Fujimori government, one of the cases in which the ex-dictator was convicted.

“Relatives of Fujimori’s victims have fought for memory and justice for many years, and we are concerned that the daughter of the main person responsible for the deaths of our loved ones intends to go to the government to rewrite history who condemned Fujimori. Keiko is impunity. We’ve been in this fight for almost thirty years, it’s a never-ending story. I feel a lot of indignation and concern that Fujimorism can return to government and we are returning to this disastrous period, ”said Gisela Ortiz. Page I12.

No to Fujimori’s forgiveness

In the mobilization too there were some of the more than 300,000 women who were victims of forced sterilizations during the Fujimori dictatorship. The prosecution accuses Alberto Fujimori and three of his health ministers of being responsible for this policy of forced sterilization. Keiko announced that she would forgive her imprisoned father and refused forced sterilizations a few days ago, of which there is abundant evidence and testimony, and describes what happened as “a family planning policy”.

María Elena Carbajal is one of those women sterilized against her will who demands justice and is now marching against Keiko. “It causes me outrage, pain, great sadness that Fujimori can return to government. If Keiko wins and is president, the process of forced sterilization and other cases will be closed, we will have no justice. I appeal to the memory of the population so that they do not forget what happened in the 90s, with this corrupt dictatorship which committed massacres, massacres, forced sterilizations. This should not be repeated, ”María Elena told this newspaper.

The shirt does not stain

Before the start of the walk, next to the central square of Plaza San Martín, meeting point, under a sign indicating “the shirt does not stain”, a group washed the jersey of the Peruvian soccer team, in a symbolic gesture of rejection of its use by candidate Fujimori, who wears it in every public act, and in disapproval of the coordinated support twelve national team players – including Boca defender Carlos Zambrano – have given Keiko, with videotaped messages that repeat McCarthy’s scenario to demand the vote “against communism “. A man carried a card that said “Keiko, you bought the national team, but not the fans ”.

“We reject Keiko’s candidacy, which represents the continuity of an unequal economic model, corruption and impunity. This is why we are marching against her again, as we did in the elections of 2011 and 2016. There is a lot of power and a lot of money to support Keiko ”, said Sandra de la Cruz, of the collective “Keiko no va”, one of the groups that called the march.

The mainstream media did not report or downplay the protests against candidate Fujimori on Saturday. An expression of his rude bias towards Keiko. Protesters rejected this media alignment. “Turn off the TV, look at the street,” said one of the posts, another accused more blunt: “Trash press”.

The millionaire campaign of fear against the left and support for candidate Fujimori has had an impact, but the latest IEP survey would reveal its limits in erasing memory and winning a candidate who represents authoritarianism and corruption and arouses strong civic rejection, as demonstrated in these mobilizations.