Mark Carney’s Liberal government is looking to cash in under the new right-wing presidency of Keiko Fujimori in Peru.
According to Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Robert Oliphant, parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, is attending Fujimori’s inauguration in Lima today with the goal to “unlock new opportunities.”
Fujimori is the daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto, who was arrested in Chile in 2005 for serious human rights abuses, including allegations of mass killings and forced disappearances of left-wing rebels.
He was extradited to Peru in 2007, where he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After winning Peru’s presidential election by a razor-thin margin last month, some Peruvians fear Fujimori will repeat some of her father’s authoritarian abuses.
Fujimori’s loyalists in congress have recommended criminal charges be brought against one of Peru’s top investigative journalists, in a move that critics have decried as sinister and absurd.
Fujimori’s ascent to the presidency follows years of political instability in Peru, including a period in which the country’s security forces cracked down heavily on Indigenous-led protests in late 2022 and 2023 following the ouster of left-wing president Pedro Castillo.