Peru elections: who's who?
Nineteen candidates will compete in the first round of the presidential elections in Peru on April 10, which reflects the multiparty nature of the Peruvian political system. Who are the favorites?
Keiko Fujimori
Daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori and former congresswoman of the Republic, Susana Higuchi. Born in Lima and 40 years old, she has a degree in business administration from Boston University and an MBA from Columbia University. She embarked on her political career in 1994, occupying the post of First Lady of the Nation until 2000. In 2006 she was elected congresswoman of the Republic for Lima. In 2010 she formed and led the political party Force 2011 (today Popular Force), standing as its candidate for president in the general elections where she was defeated by the current president, Ollanta Humala.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Born in Lima and 77 years old, he studied philosophy, economics and politics at Exeter College, University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and has a Master's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He was head of Planning and Policy at the World Bank. In 1980 he was Minister of Energy and Mines, and he has held the office of Minister of Economy and Finance on two occasions: from July 2001 to July 2002, and from February 2004 to August 2005. He was also President of the Council of Ministers from August 2005 to July 2006. Throughout the years he has sat on the board of directors of several companies. He ran for president in 2011 and came third.
Alan García
Born in Lima, he is 66 years old and studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru before transferring to the National University of San Marcos, where he completed his degree in 1971. He subsequently studied at the Complutense University in Madrid and the University of Paris. At the age of 35 he was elected president and held office from 1985 to 1990. Following Alberto Fujimori's auto-coup in 1992, he sought exile in Colombia and then Paris. After the fall of the Fujimori regime, García returned to his country and ran for president in 2001. He was defeated by Alejandro Toledo, but in 2006 he was elected president of Peru for the second time. He is now seeking a third mandate.
César Acuña
Born in Cajamarca and 63 years old, he studied at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the National University of Trujillo and subsequently obtained a Master's degree and a PhD abroad. He has held the positions of general manager and chairman of the board of the César Vallejo University. In 2001 he founded the Señor de Sipán University in Chiclayo, and in 2007 the Autonomous University of Peru in Villa El Salvador. A congressman between 2000 and 2006, he was elected mayor of the city of Trujillo on two occasions (2006-2014), and was regional governor of La Libertad between January and October 2015.
Julio Guzmán
Born in Lima and 45 years old, he studied economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, has a Master's degree from Georgetown University, and obtained a PhD in Public Policy from Maryland University. He worked for 10 years at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as an integration and trade economist. He was also an assistant professor at the Schools of Public Policy at Georgetown and Maryland universities. He has been Secretary General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) and Deputy Minister of MSE and Industry in the current government. For over a year he has been dedicated exclusively to preparing for his presidential campaign.