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Peru: Thousands Protest Presidential Candidate Fujimori


Demonstrators hold posters with a message that reads in Spanish; "Reject the Narco State, reject Keiko," during a protest against presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, at Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima, Peru, May 31, 2016.
Demonstrators hold posters with a message that reads in Spanish; "Reject the Narco State, reject Keiko," during a protest against presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, at Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima, Peru, May 31, 2016.

Thousands marched in Peru's capital, Lima, to oppose presidential frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, just four days before the election.

Protesters chanting slogans such as "Keiko No!" and "No to a state run by drug traffickers!" likened Fujimori to her father, controversial former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled from 1990 to 2000 and is currently serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption during his term.

Keiko Fujimori, 41, has tried to distance herself from her father by promising not to revive his hardline methods or authoritarian rule, and proposing generous spending on infrastructure, including building more prisons in an effort to combat crime.

The march, organized by the group "Keiko No Va" (It is not going to be Keiko), was led by Veronika Mendoza, a leftist former presidential candidate who came in third in the general election in April. Mendoza has since endorsed former World Bank economist Pedro Kuczynski, despite vast ideological differences between the two.

Fujimori faces 77-year-old Kuczynski in a runoff election Sunday. She beat him by a large margin in the first round of voting.

The center-right politician would be Peru's first female president.

Despite a recent fall in commodity prices and a slowdown under outgoing president Ollanta Humala, Peru is one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America.

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