Supporters regard him as a man of action trying make life better for his millions of constituents. Critics consider him an incompetent tyrant. Combative and prone to hyperbole, he dominates headlines in media outlets he rails against and is skilled at weaving fact and fiction into conspiracy theories for an electorate quickly losing faith in institutions.
Rafael López Aliaga, 64, the mayor of Lima who has embraced the nickname “Porky” because of his resemblance to the cartoon character Porky Pig, has declared himself a follower of President Trump as he prepares to announce that he is running for president in Peru’s election next April.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. López Aliaga casts himself as part of a global struggle against the dangers posed by what he calls a “lying, thieving and murderous” left. He is also a longstanding member of the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei who said he practices celibacy.
While he is not as well known as other Latin American right-wing politicians like President Javier Milei of Argentina and Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, Mr. López Aliaga appears eager to join the club by aligning himself with the MAGA movement.
He spoke at a conference last year in Argentina organized by the Conservative Political Action Conference, an influential U.S. conservative group, snapped selfies at Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January and on Saturday held a memorial for Charlie Kirk at a park in Lima, to the bewilderment of some attendees who had never heard of the slain American activist.
Mr. López Aliaga, a former Lima city councilman and a railway and hotel tycoon, was elected mayor of the city of 10 million in 2022. Nearly a third of Peru’s population lives in the traffic-choked capital and many residents have been impressed with his work to expand roads and railways.
“At least he’s trying,” said Edison Mejía, 31, an artist. “Lima needs public works. Other politicians don’t care. They don’t mind making a fat salary while everything stays the same.”
Mr. López Aliaga, in an interview in Lima’s ornate municipal palace, said Peru, and the world for that matter, needed to be rescued from progressives and others who he believes are corrupt and support abortion rights and communism.
While Mr. Trump refers to those who oppose him as “the deep state,” Mr. López Aliaga uses “caviares,” a Spanish reference to caviar, to describe progressives he says conspire to keep the country poor.
“They benefit from people suffering, from people being miserable, because that public votes for them,” he said. “If someone leaves poverty, stops suffering, they forget the left.”
Conservative Peruvians have long used the term to poke fun at leftist elites, but “caviar” has now become ubiquitous in political discourse, hurled as an accusation by the far right and the far left alike to discredit progressives and centrists.
“It’s like limousine liberals, but broader,” said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist who wrote a book called “Caviar.” “It’s the populist need to have a great enemy,” and Mr. López Aliaga, he added, said he wants to “defend Peru from that great enemy.”
Mr. López Aliaga, looking toward next year’s election, has called for eliminating most government ministries, sending dangerous prisoners to El Salvador, ramping up the presence of troops on Peru’s borders and ordering military courts to try “urban terrorists.”
He said that he supported the United States bombing of boats in the Caribbean that Mr. Trump accused of carrying drugs and that Peru should forge closer ties with Washington to “balance the equation” with China, Peru’s top trade partner.
“I admire Trump for what he’s doing,” Mr. López Aliaga said. “He speaks clearly, doesn’t lie to you and does what he says quickly.”
Mr. López Aliaga is perhaps most similar to Mr. Trump in temperament. He can shift quickly from jokes and expressions of love to raging against the “parasites” and “specimens” holding Peru back.
In 2021, he called for the “death” of two leftist politicians and told an advocate of physician-assisted dying to jump off a building.
Mr. López Aliaga has taken a particular disliking to an investigative journalist, Gustavo Gorriti, whose news organization IDL-Reporteros has looked into the mayor’s business dealings and has revealed that public prosecutors are examining possible financial crimes involving companies linked to the mayor.
A day before Mr. Kirk was killed, Mr. López Aliaga said Mr. Gorriti had to be “eliminated once and for all.”
Mr. López Aliaga said he meant only that Mr. Gorriti should be put on trial, accusing him of acting like “the king of Peru.”
Mr. Gorriti, in an interview, said Mr. López Aliaga’s attacks reflected a “neo-fascist playbook.”
“This whole idea of a global conspiracy involving dark, mysterious forces, it’s very old,” he added. “It’s a paranoid vision of the far right, applied here.”
Jack Nicas contributed reporting from Lima.
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