Rafael López Aliaga is the conservative mayor of Lima, Peru's capital, and a wealthy business tycoon. Peruvians call him "Porky" for his resemblance to Porky Pig, a likeness he plays up, deploying people in pig costumes at events and adopting a pet pig as his personal mascot. He is also a former city councillor.
Mr López Aliaga became mayor in January 2023. His attempt to annul an unpopular toll contract ended with Lima on the hook for more than $196m in damages—and perhaps $2.7bn more in a current arbitration suit. His plan to acquire 40-year-old diesel locomotives and carriages from California for a proposed rail line has been dogged by criticism; after an acrimonious spat with the transport ministry it remains unclear when, or if, they will be put to use. Lima's debt has more than tripled under his leadership, and in June 2025 Moody's knocked its credit rating below investment-grade.
Mr López Aliaga often invokes a nebulous "mafia" and blames left-leaning "parasites" in the bureaucracy. He has called for the death of two political opponents (later saying he meant their "political death"), and suggested that an advocate for assisted dying suffering from a terminal illness should take her own life in a warm bath. He holds strident views against abortion and gay marriage.
In the most recent Ipsos survey as of August 2025, Mr López Aliaga topped the voting-intention list for the April 2026 general election for the first time, just ahead of Keiko Fujimori. He only just squeaked into double-digit support. He has said that most government ministries should be eliminated, that dangerous prisoners should be sent to El Salvador and that more troops should be put on Peru's borders.
In the April 12th 2026 election Mr López Aliaga finished in a near-tie for second place with Roberto Sánchez, a leftist, trailing him by fewer than 20,000 votes. An admirer of President Donald Trump, he vowed an "insurgency" unless the election was annulled, claiming he was the victim of a plot. Preliminary analysis suggests polling-station failures in Lima, where he was formerly mayor, may have cost him thousands of votes through elevated abstention.
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