Pope Leo XIV and Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori called for a careful and compassionate reckoning with Peru’s past during an event at Lima’s National Grand Theater on Wednesday, Nov. 11. (Foto: Instagram)
Pope Leo XIV and Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori called for careful reflection on the country’s contentious past during an event in Lima on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Speaking at the National Grand Theater, Leo said past events should be addressed with justice and sensitivity.
The remarks came during the pope’s visit to Peru, the final stop on his Latin American trip, which began in Uruguay on Nov. 6. Before Leo spoke at the same event, Fujimori said people needed to look back with truth and justice, as well as mercy and compassion.
Fujimori is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s former president and former dictator. He led the country from 1990 to 2000 and was convicted of human rights violations and corruption, receiving a 25-year prison sentence. After fleeing Peru, he was detained in Chile in 2005 and later extradited.
In 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted Alberto Fujimori a pardon. Peru’s courts overturned it two years later. Keiko Fujimori became the first woman elected president of Peru, winning in July by a margin of 50,000 votes, according to the article. She was described as the country’s 10th president since 2016, a period marked by political instability in which no president completed a five-year term during the previous decade.
