Peru's new president says military will lead crime operations in emergencies

Keiko Fujimori has been sworn in as Peru's first female elected president - the latest conservative leader to come to power in Latin America.

At Tuesday's ceremony in Lima, the 51-year-old said the military would temporarily lead security operations in crime-ridden areas during emergencies until order was restored.

More than 100 protesters gathered in the capital against Fujimori's inauguration, the AFP news agency reported.

Many were relatives of state violence victims, including some from during the presidency of her father Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for corruption and human rights abuses during his campaign against a left-wing guerrilla insurgency in the 1990s.

Keiko Fujimori is Peru's 10th president in a decade - a tumultuous period in which no leader completed a full five-year term.

A number of foreign dignitaries were present at her inauguration in Lima - among them the right-wing presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Chile.

In June, she defeated her left-wing rival Roberto Sánchez in a razor-thin presidential run-off in her fourth attempt to win the job.

In her first address as president, Fujimori said she had received Peru in a catastrophic condition - but the country had infinite potential.

Her hardline campaign against insecurity featured heavily, as she announced that the military would at times take charge of maintaining order in areas with high crime.

"During states of emergency, the armed forces will temporarily take the lead in security operations," she said.

It was a statement that echoed the role of the military under her father, who died in 2024.

She also vowed to protect citizens against effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon and increase the minimum wage, lamenting that inequality in Peru was the highest in Latin America.

Peru is experiencing its worst security crisis in decades, fuelled by expanding local and foreign criminal gangs that oversee contract killings and extortion.