Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Fujimori
Member of the Congress of the Republic of Peru
In office 28 July 2006 – 28 July 2011
Constituency	Lima
First Lady of Peru (Ex officio)
In office August 1994 – November 22, 2000
President	Alberto Fujimori
Preceded by	Susana Higuchi
Succeeded by	Nilda Jara de Paniagua
Personal details
Born	Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (1975-05-25) May 25, 1975 Lima, Peru
Political party	Fuerza 2011 (2010–present)
Other political affiliations	Alliance for the Future (Before 2010)
Spouse(s)	Mark Villanella
Children	Kyara Sofía Kaori Marcela
Alma mater	Stony Brook University Boston University Columbia University (M.B.A.)
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Keiko Fujimori (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkejko fuxiˈmoɾi]) (Japanese: 藤森 恵子, Fujimori Keiko Japanese: [ɸúʥimoɽi kéːko]; born May 25, 1975)^[1] is a Peruvian Fujimorista politician, daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori^[2] and Susana Higuchi. She served as First Lady, from 1994 to 2000, after her parents divorced, becoming the youngest First Lady in the history of the Americas.^[2] She then became a member of the Peruvian legislature. Fujimori leads the right-wing party Fuerza 2011, and lost her bid for the presidency in the 2011 Peruvian election runoff of June 5, 2011.

Early life

Keiko Fujimori graduated from Peru's Catholic School Colegio Sagrados Corazones Recoleta (Recoleta Academy of the Sacred Hearts) in 1992. The following year, she travelled to New York City to pursue a bachelors degree in Business Administration. She began her studies at Stony Brook University, and graduated in 1997 from Boston University. She received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2006.

In August 1994, after the divorce of her parents, she was appointed First Lady of Peru. At 19 years of age and still a student, she became the youngest First Lady of the Americas. From April 1994 to November 2000, she assumed the administration of Fundacion por los Niños del Perú (Foundation for the Children of Peru), created Fundacion Peruana Cardioinfantil (Peruvian Foundation for Infant Cardiology), which she presided from 1996 to 2006, and dedicated her activities to help low income families nationwide. She summoned the Peruvian business community to contribute to her social projects.

Philanthropy

By the year 2000, Keiko Fujimori had achieved the construction of several orphanages across the country, the creation of the first pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit in Peru, and the surgeries of more than 1,000 children with heart problems.^{[citation needed]} In 2000, she received the Orden Bernardo O'Higgins, the highest honor a foreigner could receive from the Chilean government, in recognition of her social accomplishments.

Political career

Keiko Fujimori participated in several international assemblies, such as the Summit of Spouses of Heads of States and Government of the Americas in Canada and Chile, and the Cumbre Regional para la Infancia (Regional Summit for Infancy) in Colombia. She also sought international support to develop more social programs.

After her father's resignation, Keiko stayed in Peru until 2004 when she pursued an MBA at Columbia Business School.^[3] In 2004, Fujimori married Mark Villanella, a United States citizen who also acquired Peruvian citizenship in 2009. In 2005, Keiko interrupted her studies and returned to Peru after an extradition process was initiated on her father. She became the leader of the Fujimorista Political Group and announced her father's candidacy in the April 2006 Peruvian presidential election, though he was forbidden to participate in any political activity until 2011 under a congressional ban. In April 2006, while her father was detained in neighboring Chile, Fujimori was elected to the Peruvian Congress with more votes than any winning candidate.^[4]

As a congresswoman and leader of her political party, Fujimori defended the reforms executed by her father during the 1990s. She has led the opposition to the government of Alan García. She authored a law that restricts penitentiary benefits for those who commit serious offenses, and another law that obligates judges to give the highest sanctions to repeat offenders. Similarly, she passed a law that reduces the jail benefits to those who are protected under the "sincere confession" provision. Along with the Fujimorista Congress members, she worked on a project law in which the death penalty would also be applicable to some of the most severe crimes.^[5]

2011 presidential elections

During 2009, Keiko Fujimori began the collection of signatures in order to create her own political party, Fuerza 2011. In March 2010, the National Jury of Elections formally recognized the political party after more than one million signatures were collected, a number that surpassed the requirement by 854,000 signatures. Opinion polls granted her high possibilities to win the presidential elections in 2011;^[6] she was leading in presidential election polls as of July 2010.^[4]

Fujimori hired former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani as an adviser.^[7]

As of July 2010, Fujimori was noncommittal about whether she would pardon her father.^[6]

In the first round of the 2011 presidential elections, Fujimori received 23.551% of the votes, second only to Ollanta Humala, who received 31.699% of the votes. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was third with 18.512%. In the June 5 runoff, she lost to Humala, 51.34% to 48.66%.

References

External links

• Biography in-depth by CIDOB Foundation (Spanish)
• Analysis of Keiko Fujimori by Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)