LIMA: The ultra-conservative mayor of Peru’s capital resigned on Monday and announced his presidential candidacy for the Andean nation.
Rafael Lopez Aliaga is currently the favourite in opinion polls concerning Peru’s next leader.
He announced his bid just three days after Peru’s Congress impeached deeply unpopular former president Dina Boluarte.
The 38-year-old head of Peru’s legislature, Jose Jeri, was sworn in to lead the nation until elections in April 2026.
This marks the second time Lopez Aliaga, aged 64, has run for president following his 2021 attempt.
“I announce my resignation from the position of mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima to run in the primaries of the Popular Renewal party,“ Lopez Aliaga stated in a letter read before the city council.
A member of the traditionalist Catholic group Opus Dei, he has embraced the nickname “Porky” as a political symbol.
In June, when a supporter gave him a piglet in a cape during a road project visit, he nicknamed it “Worky” to highlight his “love of work.”
Peru’s media is calling his second presidential run “Porky’s revenge.”
The country is experiencing a deep security crisis with extortion and contract killings becoming daily features.
Lopez Aliaga, an admirer of Donald Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, calls for military tribunals to try the worst criminals he labels “urban terrorists.” – AFP
