Peru: the electoral scam that has five presidents behind bars

Peru: five ex-presidents in prison and an electoral fraud the administration denies

Peru holds an uncomfortable record: five of its recent leaders are behind bars. The list includes Alberto Fujimori, Pedro Castillo and three other former heads of state prosecuted for corruption or abuse of power. But the debate does not focus only on the court cases: a strand of analysis argues that the real problem is electoral fraud orchestrated from within the public administration itself.

The shadow of administrative fraud

According to this thesis, the Peruvian electoral system would have been manipulated by the state bureaucracy, not by politicians. It is argued that the administration, acting as an autonomous body, would have steered the process to favour certain candidates. The unsettling fact: while in Spain criticism focuses on the politicisation of the judiciary, in Peru the administration would have operated unchecked, convicting presidents and distorting the popular will.

A candidate who promises to kidnap the king

The political climate is further strained by the emergence of an indigenous-rights candidate with a strongly anti-Iberian tone. His most eye-catching campaign promise: to kidnap the King of Spain once in power. A measure that, although seen as an exaggeration, reflects the level of polarisation and the identity-driven drift shaking the Andean country.

With these ingredients, the Peruvian picture combines a judiciary that does jail the powerful with fraud accusations that no one can fully refute. The electoral scam, as it is called, remains unexplained.