Alfonso López Chau is a Peruvian economist, academic and politician. He served as rector of the National University of Engineering from 2021 to 2025 and was a director of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, appointed by Congress for a term running into the late 2000s. He founded the Now Nation political party, known in Spanish as Ahora Nación, and was its candidate in the 2026 presidential election.
Early life and education
Born in Lima in 1950, he grew up in the Barrio Obrero Frigorífico neighborhood of Callao. He earned an economics degree from the National University of Callao in 1976 and a master's degree in economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1985, later completing a doctorate there in 2005. He spent decades as a professor at the National University of Engineering, teaching macroeconomics and political economy, and held several academic posts in that faculty.
Political career
He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1995 for the Apertura para el Desarrollo Nacional party. Congress later elected him to the board of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. In 2021 he became rector of the National University of Engineering, where he gave refuge to protesting students during demonstrations in 2022 and 2023. In 2024 he announced his presidential aspirations, and in February 2026 he began campaigning as the candidate of his party.
Political positions
He describes himself as a centre-left politician. He proposes creating sovereign wealth funds to invest state resources and promoting the green hydrogen industry as state policy. He considers revising the current Constitution viable, while keeping the economic model, and has expressed support for the 1979 Constitution as a basis for updating it.