Crime-weary Peruvians put faith in Fujimori

Peruvian president Keiko Fujimori waves from the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Lima after taking the oath of office. (EPA Images pic)LIMA: For fervent Keiko Fujimori supporters living in neighbourhoods that bear the Peruvian president's name, the tough-talking leader cannot start fighting crime soon enough.Conservative Fujimori won the presidential run-off by a mere 50,000 votes and has sworn to get a grip on the crime wave sweeping the Andean nation.Extortion is a primary concern among many Peruvians, with recorded cases ballooning in recent years. Peru is facing its worst security crisis in decades, fuelled by the spread of both local and foreign criminal gangs that oversee contract killings and extortion.Roxana Quispe, a baker living in the port city of Callao near Lima, has received multiple threats from extortionists via phone calls.The 42-year-old has fixed her hopes on Fujimori to resolve the issue."I hope she comes here and sees our needs," she told AFP.

"I have a lot of faith in her."NamesakesQuispe lives in a section of the Ventanilla neighbourhood named after the president, who served as first lady in her father Alberto Fujimori's government in the 1990s.The disgraced ex-leader was eventually jailed for corruption and crimes against humanity committed in the name of fighting what he considered terrorism.But this legacy does not perturb his loyal followers in Quispe's neighbourhood, where the pharmacy, football pitch and community kitchen also serve as namesakes.The area has a peculiar past: it began as an illegal settlement in 1996, but the 100 or so settler families gained legitimacy when then-president Fujimori granted them property titles.They named it for Fujimori as "a way of showing gratitude," said original settler and staunch supporter Cesar Garcia, 52.Most locals openly endorse the new president, but there are some skeptics too."I don't think she will fulfill 100% of her promises," said 36-year-old food vendor Luzmari Anaya.'We lived in darkness'Over in Carabayllo, a hilltop Lima community some 20km away, a neighbourhood with the same name shares similar origins - and sentiments - with Ventanilla's Fujimori district."We used to live on rocks, on abandoned land," community kitchen coordinator Elsa Lorena, 48, told AFP."We lived in darkness because there was no electricity and we bought water from tank trucks," she said."Now we hav…