Rafael López Aliaga

Rafael Bernardo López Aliaga Cazorla (born 11 February 1961) is a Peruvian businessman and politician, who is serving as mayor of Lima since 2023. He is currently the leader of Popular Renewal, the successor to National Solidarity in 2020.

Entering politics late in his career, López Aliaga was elected to Lima's Metropolitan Council, serving under mayor Luis Castañeda Lossio's second term. Following a failed run for the Peruvian Congress in 2011, he remained a member of National Solidarity but stayed in the private sector. It was not until 2019 when he assumed the leadership of his party as General Secretary following Castañeda's pretrial detention for a corruption trial.

At the 2020 parliamentary election, López Aliaga gained political attention as he started shifting his party further to the right. Eventually, National Solidarity failed to attain congressional representation in election. Announcing a presidential bid, he was elected president of his party in order to lead a reconstruction process, effectively re-founding the party as Popular Renewal. López Aliaga ran for President of Peru at the 2021 general election. Fighting for the right-wing vote alongside Keiko Fujimori and Hernando de Soto, he eventually placed third with 11.75% of the popular vote.

Following the election of Pedro Castillo as president, López Aliaga has been considered as one of the most visible leaders of the Peruvian right and of the opposition to Castillo. He ran successfully for the mayorship of Lima in 2022, narrowly winning with a 26.32% of the vote.

As a businessman, López Aliaga is the co-founder (along with Lorenzo Sousa) and a shareholder of Peruval Corp SA, parent company of Ferrocarril Transandino SA and Peru Rail SA, both train companies with operations in Cusco, Arequipa and Puno.