Popular Force (Spanish: Fuerza Popular, FP), formerly known as Force 2011 (Spanish: Fuerza 2011) until 2012, is a right-wing populist and Fujimorist political party in Peru. The party is led by incumbent president Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori. She ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in the 2011, 2016 and 2021 presidential elections, losing by a narrow margin in all three, before being successful in the 2026 presidential election.
Contents
History
Popular Force was formed in 2010 by the merger of the Alliance for the Future coalition, formed in 2005 through the union of the Cambio 90 and New Majority parties, which were created during the government of Alberto Fujimori.
Alliance for the Future ran in the 2006 Peruvian general election; Martha Chávez was chosen to appear for the presidential elections. However, it came in fourth place with 7.44% of the votes cast. On the other hand, it managed to have parliamentary representation with 13 seats, including Keiko Fujimori who obtained the largest vote compared to the other candidates in Lima.
Keiko's role as a congresswoman was moderate since she maintained a dialogue with APRA. In other words, it was a support for the government of the day in various legislative processes. In subsequent years, her role was discreet as she had periods of leave due to her double maternity leave, trips abroad due to representative obligations and to complete her studies abroad. During her presence at the congress, she was head of the commissions for Women and Social Development, Economy, Banking, Finance and Financial Intelligence, Foreign Trade and Tourism, Budget and General Account of the Republic, and Housing and Construction.
On 21 September 2007, Alberto Fujimori was extradited from Chile after the prosecutor of the Chilean Supreme Court, Mónica Maldonado, recommended his extradition for cases of human rights violations and crimes of corruption during his government. In December of the same year, the ruling in the case of former President Alberto Fujimori was handed down in the special court room of the Supreme Court in Lima. Guilt is indicated for the crime of usurpation of functions in the search of the home of former presidential adviser Vladimiro Montesinos when the "Vladi-videos" scandal occurred. Faced with this fact, the court ruled 6 years in prison.
In July 2008, the Fujimorist bloc helped APRA Congressman Javier Velásquez's candidacy for the presidency of the congress. Consequently, the opposition group indicated that this was due to the flexibilities that former president Fujimori received in jail. That same year, Keiko declared her intention to unite all Fujimorists into a single party.
Popular Force is the country’s most powerful and best-structured political force. The party governs Peru from Congress, where it holds a position of strength. It has managed to consolidate its political control by appointing individuals aligned with its interests to head several key institutions, such as the Constitutional Court and the Public Ministry. It has been responsible for the removal of three presidents in ten years. Keiko Fujimori has been its undisputed leader since her brother Kenji Fujimori’s withdrawal from political life and her father’s death in 2024.
Support for Dina Boluarte
Keiko Fujimori announced that Fuerza Popular would support Dina Boluarte's government after Boluarte was sworn in as president following the removal and detention of Pedro Castillo in December 2022. Fujimori expressed gratitude to the armed forces and national police for their role in safeguarding democracy and the constitutional order, and said Boluarte could count on the backing of Fuerza Popular.
Electoral history
2010 regional and municipal elections
The party failed to be elected in any regional governments and only elected 5 regional councilors.
2011 general elections
In the 2011 election, Popular Force (as Force 2011) registered Keiko Fujimori's nomination for President, with Rafael Rey for First Vice President and Jaime Yoshiyama for Second Vice President. Their ticket placed second with 23.55% of votes in the first round and made it into the runoff, but the ticket was defeated by Ollanta Humala's ticket in the runoff with 48.55%. The party obtained 37 seats in the Congress in which, Keiko's brother, Kenji Fujimori was the most voted congressman and 1 seat (Rafael Rey of National Renewal) in the Andean Parliament.
2014 regional and municipal elections
In the 2014 elections, the party won three regional governorships.
2016 general elections
In the 2016 elections, the party won an absolute majority in Congress (73 out of 130 seats) and won three out of five seats in the Andean Parliament. In the presidential vote, party leader Keiko Fujimori was defeated again by a small margin, gaining 49.88% in the runoff against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of the Peruvians for Change with 50.12%.
2018 regional and municipal elections
In the 2018 elections, Popular Force saw a large loss of popularity with the party not being elected to a single position in Lima or in any regional governments. According to Datum, Keiko Fujimori also saw an approval rating of 11% while 83% expressed disapproval.
2020 snap parliamentary elections
In the 2020 snap parliamentary elections, Popular Force lost most of its seats in Congress from 73 to 15 seats after being the previous largest party in the 2016–19 Congressional term.
2021 general elections
The party once again nominated Keiko Fujimori for the presidency, with former Congress President Luis Galarreta and former Lieutenant Mayor of Lima Patricia Juárez for the first and second vice presidency by the votes of 37 party delegates, as it was the only list. After this, the campaign began and former 2016 National Solidarity-Union for Peru presidential nominee Hernando Guerra García, son of former Congressman Roger Guerra García was selected to head the party's congressional list for Lima. In the first round, Keiko Fujimori placed second behind Pedro Castillo of Free Peru and ahead of Rafael López Aliaga of Popular Renewal. However, in the run-off, Fujimori lost the election to Pedro Castillo by a margin of 44,000 votes but refused to concede the election and made several fraud allegations.
2026 general elections
In her fourth attempt for the presidency, Keiko Fujimori launched her campaign in October 2025. The party had initially sought to run her father, but he died in September 2024. Luis Galarreta and Miki Torres ran on the ticket as her first and second vice presidents, respectively. In the first round, Popular Force won a plurality of the seats in both houses of the newly-established bicameral Congress. Fujimori advanced to the second round and placed first. After weeks of counting, Keiko Fujimori defeated leftist Roberto Sánchez, becoming Peru's first elected female president.
Controversies
Participation in the conjunctures
At the beginning of the year, with the new Law on Political Parties, changes were made in the regulations. That is why the ONPE contemplated a sanction on Fuerza Popular for the Cocktail Case, in which the party carried out money laundering of S / 4.6 million in 6 cocktails. According to Luis Barboza, Finding inconsistencies, the case would go to the commission of identity infringements, where eventually they could impose a sanction on the party that leads the presidential candidate." On the other hand, the National Elections Jury indicated the exclusion of Vladimiro Huaroc because delivered food and water to Satipo, which is prohibited in article 42 of the current party law.
Keiko Fujimori and Popular Force case
For two years before the outbreak of the Odebrecht scandal, Fuerza Popular was under investigation for the financing of its electoral campaign prior to the 2011 elections when it participated under the name of Fuerza 2011. A part of the millionaire financing of the campaign had been supported before the ONPE with alleged voluntary contributions from numerous supporters, through the holding of cocktails and raffles. In October 2015, a law student, David Apaza Enríquez, noting that the accounts delivered by Fuerza Popular to the ONPE did not match, filed the first complaint against said party with the Prosecutor's Office, under the thesis that the financing of the campaign The 2011 election had actually been done with illicit money ("ghost contributions") and therefore it would be a case of money laundering. The Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation on 2 November 2015. It was the beginning of the so-called Cocktails Case.
Other complaints arose against Fuerza Popular, all under the presumption of money laundering. There were also complaints against Keiko Fujimori herself and her husband Mark Vito Villanella, after it was revealed that the latter had made a purchase of land in Chilca for $617,329. In March 2016, the prosecutor Germán Juárez Atoche opened a preliminary investigation of Keiko Fujimori and her husband.
The revelation of the Odebrecht case gave further clues to the money laundering investigation. Effective collaborator Jorge Barata, Odebrecht representative in Peru, revealed that he held meetings with former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori during the 2011 election campaign. In May 2017, Marcelo Odebrecht confirmed that he gave money to the main presidential candidates of 2011, including to the Fujimori candidate. Later, Keiko's situation was complicated when it was revealed that on the Odebrecht agenda there was a note with the name of the former presidential candidate along with an amount (the text read: "Increase Keiko for 500 e fazer visit"). The figure was said to refer to $500,000 and was a contribution to her 2011 election campaign.
In September 2017, the prosecutor of the Nation Pablo Sánchez ordered that a single incumbent prosecutor be in charge of investigating all the complaints that appeared against Keiko and her party, which came under the jurisdiction of the subsystem specialized in crimes of money laundering and loss of ownership. The designated prosecutor was José Domingo Pérez, who in October of the same year adapted the investigation to the Organized Crime Law and extended the term for the investigation to 36 months.
First impeachment proceedings against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
In December 2017, 10 congressmen from the party (including Kenji Fujimori) abstained from voting in favor of the vacancy against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a decision that the party had agreed to vote in favor unanimously. As the vacancy did not prosper due to the 10 abstention votes, the party decided to initiate a disciplinary process against them at the beginning of 2018, when Congressman Bienvenido Ramirez was expelled and in a few hours Kenji Fujimori was expelled too, the remaining eight congressmen decided to resign. to the party, a decision that had already been agreed upon before if one of them was withdrawn from Fuerza Popular.
Political position
Popular Force is considered a right-wing to far-right. Internationally, the party has aligned with right-wing groups, with Peruvian investigative journalism website OjoPúblico writing in an article discussing right-wing alliances in the Americas that members of the far-right Spanish political party Vox traveled to Peru to obtain signatures for the anti-leftist manifesto known as the Madrid Charter, with the parties Go on Country of Hernando de Soto, Popular Force of Keiko Fujimori, and Popular Renewal of Rafael López Aliaga signing the document. Peruvian business executives, including the owner of Willax Televisión, also participated in discussions and signed the charter. The party revolves around the personality-based political doctrine of Fujimorism. Historically, some members identified themselves as centre-left (Luz Salgado, Vladimiro Huaroc and Hernando Guerra García) or centre-right (Keiko Fujimori).
The party advocates for a social market economy similar to Alberto Fujimori's "True Social Market Economy", which, however, was supportive of free market reforms, including neoliberal economic policies and reforms like economic liberalization which developed Peru into a free market economy. In an article by Keiko Fujimori, she was quoted as saying "I propose a model of a social market economy, not marxism or communism."