El Comercio Group

Influence and political orientation[edit]

El Comercio Group is the largest media conglomerate in Peru and one of the largest in South America.^[2][3][4] Though they opposed the Alberto Fujimori government,^[12][13] the company has typically supported right-wing politicians, including President Alan García and Alberto's daughter, Keiko Fujimori.^[5] From the 2011 Peruvian general election^[14] to the 2021 Peruvian general election,^[15] El Comercio supported Fujimori. According to Wayka, Elisabeth Dulanto Baquerizo de Miró Quesadao of the family who owns El Comercio group signed the Madrid Charter and has helped hold events for the anti-leftist organization Madrid Forum, a group that was organized by the far-right Spanish party Vox.^[16]


The 2013 acquisition of Epensa was controversial to some observers who noted that the purchase of Epensa moved the conglomerate from owning fifty percent of Peru's newspapers purchased up to owning seventy-eight percent of sales.^[4][6] To these observers, the acquisition allowed El Comercio group to limit press freedom by controlling opinions published in their newspapers, though El Comercio Group denied such allegations.^[4] President Ollanta Humala denounced the acquisition saying that the move gave the conglomerate too much influence and called on legislators to oversee the controversy.^[4] Eight journalists in November 2013 filed a lawsuit in Peru's Constitutional Court to block the acquisition of Epensa^[6] and on 24 June 2021, Judge Juan Macedo Cuenca ruled to nullify the purchase citing "a violation of the constitutional right of freedom of expression and information - information pluralism".^[17] El Comercio Group decided to appeal the judge's decision.^[17]


One of the company's main shareholders José Alejandro Graña Miró Quesada of the Miró Quesada family was arrested in late 2017 after his Graña & Montero construction company was involved in the Odebrecht scandal.^[5]