Founding (1997–2000) We Are Peru was formed in 1995 under the name of "We Are Lima"
(Somos Lima) as a personalist vehicle for mayoral candidate
Alberto Andrade who broke from the
Christian People's Party. Andrade was elected Mayor of Lima and became a leading figure of the opposition against then-president
Alberto Fujimori. He was considered a main contender against Fujimori in the
2000 general election and was fiercely attacked by pro-government media, who successfully sought to diminish his popularity. Eventually, he gained only 3.0% of the votes.
2000s At the
legislative elections, held on 8 April 2001, the party won 5.8% of the popular vote and 4 out of 120 seats in the unicameral
Congress of the Republic. For the municipal and regional elections of 2002, We Are Peru already had a certain party structure at the national level. So much so that it presents candidates for municipalities and regional governments in many parts of the country. Andrade, for his part, stood for the second re-election as mayor of Lima. Soon
Luis Castañeda Lossio of the
National Solidarity Party, a member of the
National Unity electoral alliance, would become his main rival during the campaign. Castañeda began to gain a lot of positive image when he began to visit the poorest and most remote areas of Lima. Despite the fact that all the voting intention polls put Andrade as the sure winner, Castañeda in a few weeks managed to tip the electorate in his favor. The results were 39.9% for Castañeda and 29.9% for Andrade. The party participated in the
2006 elections as part of the
Centre Front together with the
Popular Action (AP). Alberto Andrade ran as the first running mate of AP leader
Valentín Paniagua. Paniagua came in distant fifth with only 5.8% of the vote. In the congressional vote, the alliance won 7.1% of the vote and 5 seats in which, Andrade won a seat in
Congress as the only congressman from We Are Peru. Once installed in the Congress of the Republic, the congressmen elected by the Frente de Centro formed a parliamentary group called the Parliamentary Alliance, together with the two congressmen from Peru Possible and the two from the National Restoration.
2010s In the 2011 election, both We Are Peru and AP joined the
Possible Peru Alliance and endorsed the presidential candidacy of former President
Alejandro Toledo, who finished fourth, while the alliance won 14.8% of the vote in the congressional election and We Are Peru won two seats. In 2013, We Are Peru was involved in the revocation process of the
mayor of Lima Susana Villarán and her councilors supporting the "no" option. The party leadership made this decision appealing to considerations of democratic continuity and the need not to interfere in the public works that were being developed in the capital. In the 2016 election, We Are Peru joined the
Alliance for the Progress of Peru of
César Acuña. The alliance won 9.2% of the popular vote and 9 seats, but We Are Peru did not win a single seat, and was shut from Congress for the first time in 16 years. In 2018, the former mayor of the District of La Molina, Juan Carlos Zurek Pardo-Figueroa, ran for Mayor of Lima with Somos Perú, finishing in sixth place with 3.59% of the votes of Lima residents.
2020s At the
legislative elections held on 26 January 2020, after 14 years of participating in electoral coalitions and alliances, the party itself won 6.1% of the popular vote and 11 out of 130 seats in the
Congress of the Republic. On 5 September 2020,
Daniel Salaverry announced his official candidacy for the presidency of the Republic for the
2021 general election, under the We Are Peru party in which he had been affiliated since June of the same year. This was the first time that We Are Peru did not participate in general election coalitions since its foundation in 2000. promoting Somos Perú ahead of the
2026 Peruvian election. Following the
removal of President Martín Vizcarra due to charges of corruption, Vizcarra announced on 27 November 2020 that he would campaign for a seat in Congress for the 2021 general election, joining the We Are Peru party, which had just voted for his removal weeks before. The We Are Peru party's presidential candidate Daniel Salaverry welcomed Vizcarra to the party. Following the impeachment and removal of
Dina Boluarte, party member
José Jerí assumed Peru's
presidency in October 2025. == Political positions ==