Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru, draws global attention

Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores has won the mayoral election in Peru's remote Queropalca district by 25 votes. His name has turned a low-profile local contest into an international curiosity over unusual naming in Peru.

In Short

• Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores secured 229 votes, taking 34.5 per cent of valid ballots
• His nearest rival finished 25 votes behind in the Queropalca contest
• Queropalca is a remote Lauricocha district with just over 730 residents

Despite winning an election to represent a district of fewer than 1,000 people, a Peruvian politician has attracted international attention because his name combines the forenames of two of history's most notorious fascist dictators — Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores, 45, won the mayoral election in Queropalca, a remote Andean district in Peru's Hunuco department, by a narrow margin, contesting on the ticket of the centre-left Ahora Nación party.

Flores secured 229 votes, accounting for 34.5 per cent of the 663 valid ballots cast, according to election results. His closest rival, Gaspar Benilde Osorio Zambrano of the right-wing Popular Renewal Peru party, received 204 votes, giving Flores a lead of just 25 votes.

Queropalca, located in the province of Lauricocha, has an estimated population of just over 730, according to official data from 2024. The district lies around 360 km (224 miles) from the capital, Lima.

His unusual name has turned an otherwise low-profile local election into a subject of international curiosity. Peruvian outlet Peru21 described his candidacy as striking because his forenames are shared with “two of the most well-known figures of 20th-Century European totalitarian regimes”.

NOT THE FIRST PERUVIAN POLITICIAN NAMED HITLER

Flores is not the first politician in Peru to attract attention because of a name associated with the Nazi dictator.

Hitler Guesclin Alba Snchez, a member of the centre-right We Are Peru party, served as mayor of the Andean town of Yngar from 2011 to 2014. He won another mayoral election in 2018, defeating rival candidate Lenin Vladimir Rodrguez Valverde, who had challenged the validity of his candidacy.

Alba reportedly campaigned under the slogans “Hitler returns” and “Hitler with the people”, describing himself as “the good Hitler”. He said his father had been unaware of the Nazi leader's legacy when he gave him the name.

Another Peruvian politician, Hitler Saavedra, a surgeon and lawmaker from We Are Peru, served in Congress from 2021 until his death in 2024 at the age of 46.

UNUSUAL NAMES IN PERU

The election of Flores has once again drawn attention to the practice of giving children unusual or historically significant names in Peru, sometimes without regard to the controversial associations attached to them.

A similar case emerged in Namibia in 2020, when a politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona won a local election. Namibia, a former German colony, has a history of Germanic first names being used in the country.

For Flores, the election victory means taking office as mayor of a small Andean district. But his name has ensured that the result has attracted attention far beyond its borders.

- Ends