View of front pages of newspapers displayed at a newsstand in Lima on June 8, the day after the runoff election [Getty]
Peru’s two presidential contenders are offering starkly different visions of the country’s foreign policy on Palestine and Israel – and the result of their razor‑thin race could shift the regional balance in Latin America’s diplomacy over Gaza.
Roberto Sánchez, a leftist aligned with the region’s new “pink tide” movement, is expected to move Peru closer to an emerging pro‑Palestine bloc, while conservative Keiko Fujimori would likely cement a security‑first, pro‑Israel line.
With more than 97% of ballots counted and the margin still too narrow to declare a winner, Peru faces a contested vote tally that could drag on for weeks.
Two foreign policy projects
Sánchez, of the Together for Peru party, has campaigned on social justice, state intervention and a more “sovereign” foreign policy that challenges Western double standards.
In that worldview, Palestine sits alongside other Global South struggles against colonialism and racialised state violence.
Analysts suggest a Sánchez government would likely face pressure from its base and regional allies to at least review ties with Israel and follow the steps of previous Latin American countries by recalling the ambassador and freezing or scrutinising security cooperation.
A Sánchez administration would, therefore, align Peru’s voting record more consistently with Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil on Gaza and Palestinian statehood.
Fujimori’s Popular Force, by contrast, presents Israel as a model for combining economic modernisation with harsh, technologically sophisticated “counter‑terrorism”.
Her campaign has leaned heavily on a tough‑on‑crime narrative amid Peru’s spiralling insecurity, implicitly linking domestic gangs and regional instability to global threats.
Under Fujimori, Lima would be expected to deepen security and intelligence ties with Israel and the United States, resist diplomatic censures of Israel, and avoid language that frames Gaza in terms of apartheid, ethnic cleansing or genocide.
Security versus solidarity
These contrasting foreign policies are rooted in how each camp understands security and solidarity.
For Fujimori, Peru’s overriding problem is violent crime and state weakness – seeing Israel as an effective security state.
Emulating elements of the Israeli model – from policing and intelligence to cyber‑surveillance – has been framed by the presidential candidate as part of a broader promise to “restore order”.
Sánchez and his allies, especially in rural and indigenous regions, see security as inseparable from historic exclusion, racism and state violence at home.
The repression of protests and the neglect of sidelined regions echo, in their narrative, the dispossession and siege of Palestinians. Gaza is framed by Sánchez supporters not as a distant conflict but another terrain of anti‑colonial struggle.
Since the genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, governments in Colombia, Chile and Bolivia have recalled ambassadors or broken relations with Israel, explicitly invoking international law and anti‑colonial solidarity.
Brazil, for example, has emerged as a vocal Global South critic of Israeli conduct under President Lula da Silva while stopping short of a full break of ties, and several Latin American states have supported South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice.
A Sánchez presidency would almost certainly bring Peru into closer alignment with this front.
