QUEROPALCA, Peru — A businessman named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has secured election as mayor of a remote district in the Peruvian Andes, according to official electoral records reported by The Guardian.
Simeon Flores, 45, won the Oct. 4 municipal vote to lead Queropalca, located in the central Peruvian department of Huánuco. He ran under the banner of the left-wing Ahora Nación, or Now Nation, party, The Guardian and the New York Post reported.
Data from Peru’s national electoral authorities showed Simeon Flores secured 229 votes out of 663 ballots cast, accounting for about 34 percent of the vote. He finished 25 ballots ahead of his closest competitor, Gaspar Osorio of the right-wing Popular Renewal party, who garnered 204 votes, according to both outlets. The New York Post reported that Queropalca has an estimated population of 730 people, and a margin of only 42 votes divided the top three finishers in the contest.
A shift across Peru’s political spectrum
Simeon Flores works in the freight transportation sector and once managed the Simeon Sac Investment Group, according to candidate filings cited by the New York Post. Candidate records indicate he completed high school, though his higher education background remains unclear.
Before his successful run with Ahora Nación, Simeon Flores belonged to Popular Force, the right-wing populist movement led by Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, according to electoral records cited by The Guardian. He resigned from Popular Force in 2025 before launching his campaign with the center-left party, the New York Post reported.
The newly elected mayor shares two given names with 20th-century European dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, a pairing that drew international attention to the small mountain municipality.
A history of unusual political names
Despite the global infamy attached to names of fascist dictators, candidates carrying the name Hitler have previously found electoral success in Peru, The Guardian noted.
In 2021, physician Hitler Saavedra Casternoque won a seat in the national parliament representing the centrist Somos Peru party, according to The Guardian. Three years earlier, in 2018, Hitler Alba Sánchez won election as mayor of Yungar, another Andean district in Peru. Alba Sánchez, who had previously governed the municipality between 2011 and 2014, defeated a field that included candidate Lennin Vladimir Rodriguez Valverde, leading observers to label the contest a race between figures named after Hitler and Lenin.
During that 2018 municipal race, Alba Sánchez campaigned under the slogan that he was “the good Hitler,” telling the news agency EFE that his given moniker felt no different to him than names such as Juan, Lucas, or Sebastian, the New York Post reported. He ultimately took 47.7 percent of the vote.
Similar naming occurrences have emerged elsewhere across the globe. In Namibia, local official Adolf Uunona won multiple regional council terms, though he publicly distanced himself from the Nazi leader and dropped Hitler from his public name after facing widespread internet scrutiny, the New York Post reported.
Simeon Flores is scheduled to officially assume the mayoral office in Queropalca on Jan. 1, 2027, according to electoral details reported by The Guardian. Local authorities have not yet announced Simeon Flores’ cabinet appointments or administrative priorities ahead of the transition.
