They bounded off buses by the dozens — families from the poor peripheries of Lima, Peru, lured into the city with a free ride, free lunch, and a free ticket to a city water park.
Some wore church clothes and carried Bibles, having heard there would be a memorial for an evangelical Christian like them. He was murdered in the United States for his beliefs, they were told, though few knew his name.
Many others were more confused. “Who’s Charlie Kirk?” asked Milagros Garcia, 56, sitting on the grass with a plate of chicken on Saturday at the Charlie Kirk memorial in Lima.
“I’ve never seen him,” she added when shown the event’s flier — a photo of Mr. Kirk in front of the Peruvian and American flags. Three women around her concurred.
Like Ms. Garcia, many attendees said they thought they were there for a rally for Lima’s mayor, Rafael López Aliaga, a right-wing politician widely known as “Porky” who is considered a top contender to be Peru’s next president and is expected to soon announce his candidacy. They weren’t entirely wrong.
Mr. López Aliaga, 64, is trying to position himself as one of Latin America’s next leaders of the modern global right, joining Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Argentina’s Javier Milei, and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. He announced the Kirk memorial at a far-right conference in Madrid last month and billed it as the only government-backed tribute to Mr. Kirk in Latin America.
The timing was also opportune. Mr. López Aliaga organized the memorial for the Trump-aligned activist just as he sought — and received — the Trump administration’s help in a high-stakes legal battle he is waging in the United States.
Mr. López Aliaga has been fighting to have Lima take over a privately run network of toll roads and eliminate the charges, delighting voters. Already he has blocked the company managing the roads from collecting many tolls, arguing the contract is void because it was born out of bribery.
Those alleged bribes were part of a sprawling, multinational web of corruption exposed in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash investigation a decade ago, and prosecuted in part by the U.S. Justice Department.
Brookfield Asset Management, which was not implicated in that corruption, later bought a majority stake in the Lima contract. It has since sued Lima and won. Arbitration courts have ordered Lima to pay Brookfield $200 million. Brookfield is also suing Peru for $2.7 billion, arguing that Mr. López Aliaga’s actions violated a trade deal. The cases could bankrupt Lima and Mr. López Aliaga’s political career.
But the mayor recently got a boost from the Trump administration.
Beginning with a letter sent in March, Edward R. Martin Jr., a Trump-appointed Justice Department official, has signaled that the administration was taking a fresh look at corruption accusations involving the Lima contract.
Days after announcing the Kirk event in Spain, Mr. López Aliaga flew to Washington and, his lawyer confirmed, met with Mr. Martin. Shortly after, Mr. Martin sent letters to a former Justice Department official and his former law firm questioning why Lima was not named as a victim in the Car Wash investigation, which could enable it to annul the contract.
On Friday, the day before the Kirk memorial, that development was splashed on the front page of a leading conservative newspaper in Peru, with the headline: “Trump Drops a Bombshell.” Mr. López Aliaga shared it repeatedly on social media.
Mr. Kirk’s assassination has become a powerful tool for the right to motivate its base, attack the left, and further its policies.
The Trump administration has cited it in cracking down on leftist groups and canceling some foreigners’ visas. But right-wing groups abroad have also capitalized, using Mr. Kirk’s death as a rallying cry at the largest far-right gathering in Britain in years, and at the Madrid conference hosted by Vox, Spain’s increasingly popular far-right party.
Mr. López Aliaga said in an interview in Lima’s City Hall last week that he had never heard of Mr. Kirk before his death. After the shooting, he said he began watching Mr. Kirk’s videos.
“They say it was hate speech, that he was intolerant. I haven’t found a single video where he was aggressive or intolerant,” said Mr. López Aliaga. “Rather, he had a lot of patience, in my opinion. Too much patience.”
He said he impulsively decided to host the Kirk memorial while in Spain. There, he announced it would be an “apotheosis” ceremony and compared the American activist to martyrs in Rome who helped spread Christianity after the death of Jesus.
“From the blood of the martyrs came a revolution, which was the spread of Christianity,” he said in the interview. “Charlie Kirk is a turning point because many young people have reacted by saying, ‘We are Charlie Kirk.’ He has not died; he has multiplied.”
His plans to honor Mr. Kirk at the city’s Magic Circuit of Water, a park with manicured grounds and 13 synchronized fountains, was not received well by many in Lima, a city of 10 million. Commentators across the political spectrum questioned holding such an event for a little-known foreigner, but not for any Peruvians.
Mr. López Aliaga pushed ahead anyway. On the eve of the event, he predicted 30,000 to 40,000 attendees. When asked about rumors that the city would bus people in, he denied it. “It has to be organic,” he said.
The next morning, the streets around the park were lined with buses emptying passengers from as many as four hours away. Three bus drivers said the city paid them; two others said they were paid but were unsure by whom. Some buses distributed lunches.
Carlos Flores, a motorcycle taxi driver, said he took a bus to the park with his wife and two children after hearing about it at a soup kitchen. “It’s an outing for the children,” he said.
When asked about Mr. Kirk, he gave a bewildered look. “We live far away and there’s not much communication there,” he said.
Mariela Ramos, 44, an online reseller, came on a bus with her young daughter because she heard Mr. López Aliaga was going to lay out his plans as president. “As a Peruvian citizen, I want to hear what he has to offer us,” she said.
Instead, as she arrived, she found two large screens playing clips of Mr. Kirk with Spanish subtitles and then a woman singing Christian songs.
By then it was clear turnout was far smaller than Mr. López Aliaga had predicted. Perhaps a few thousand people had shown up, most on the buses.
Dozens had clearly come to honor Mr. Kirk. Some wore “Yo soy Charlie Kirk” shirts. One man waved an Israeli flag. A woman holding a sign with Mr. Kirk’s image cried when discussing what she viewed as increasing persecution of Christians. Stefano Ferrigno, a self-described podcaster, wore an all-black military uniform modeled on a fascist 1930s party from Peru.
“The only solution for this country is true nationalism, a true strongman who will lead Peru with an iron fist,” Mr. Ferrigno said, raising his gloved fist. Mr. López Aliaga “is a very good option.”
The mayor arrived to a live brass band and chants of “Porky.” Onstage, he delivered a speech about how Mr. Kirk’s death showed the grave threat the left posed to society.
“The left is not the party of love. It is the party of hatred. It is the party of class struggle. It is the party of envy,” he said. “We have to realize that we are under attack, just like in the United States.”
He concluded by presenting an honorary diploma from the city of Lima for Mr. Kirk to the only American onstage: Martin De Luca, the mayor’s Miami-based lawyer in the toll roads case.
The event lasted 90 minutes. By nightfall, the park projected images of Mr. Kirk on the water fountains, but most attendees had already boarded the buses home.
Reached by phone the next day, Mr. López Aliaga said he had no idea where the buses came from. “I have three or four events a day, all right? For me to go into detail about how people organize themselves, that’s not my role,” he said.
“Imagine asking the mayor of New York how people mobilized,” he added. “Have a little more respect.”
