JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A month after Peru's runoff election, Keiko Fujimori has been officially declared president-elect, winning by a razor-thin margin. But the victory of the daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, the 1990s strongman who ended up in jail, has some worried that Peru could slip into dictatorship. Simeon Tegel has more.
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KEIKO FUJIMORI: (Speaking Spanish).
SIMEON TEGEL, BYLINE: "Peru is split down the middle, and we have the obligation to listen to both sides," says the country's new president-elect Keiko Fujimori.
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FUJIMORI: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: But some Peruvians aren't buying her talk of dialogue and national reconciliation. They fear she will repeat the authoritarian abuses of her father, Alberto Fujimori, whose right-wing administration collapsed in 2000 in disgrace. He was accused of vote rigging, kleptocracy and serious human rights abuses.
GUSTAVO GORRITI: Yes, we might lose democracy, and - or we might end up with a severely hampered democracy.
TEGEL: Gustavo Gorriti is Peru's best-known investigative journalist. Congress, which is dominated by the Fujimoristas, has just recommended he be criminally indicted for allegedly interfering in prosecutions of high-level political graft, including the prosecution of Keiko Fujimori earlier this decade. Press freedom advocates describe the charges as sinister and absurd.
GORRITI: They have also made a very energetic effort to try to behead the judges, prosecutors that have had a consistent line of persecuting crime, on defending human rights and also trying to combat corruption. These prosecutors and judges are being persecuted themselves and expelled from their jobs right now.
TEGEL: If that process accelerates with Keiko Fujimori as president, it could mean the Fujimoristas end up controlling the judiciary, effectively giving them control of all of Peru's branches of government.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: Fujimori's victory comes at a highly sensitive moment. Just yesterday, an appeals court ordered a retrial for members of the Colina Group, a notorious death squad active during her late father's presidency. They were accused of the 1992 murder of union leader Pedro Huilca. Higher court judges ruled that a previous acquittal ignored a crucial factor - that the killing was part of a systemic government policy to crush dissent.
ARTURO MALDONADO: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: Political scientist Arturo Maldonado says there have been two versions of Keiko Fujimori over the years - a more moderate centrist one and the hard-right autocratic politician repeatedly linked to corruption.
MALDONADO: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: But Maldonado also warns that Fujimori, despite her election victory, is a deeply unpopular politician. More than 80% of the country voted against her in the first round in April. If she overplays her hand, he says, Fujimori could trigger strong resistance, including nationwide protests.
For NPR News, this is Simeon Tegel in Lima, Peru.
(SOUNDBITE OF VULFMON AND JACOB JEFFRIES' "BLUE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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