‘Strategic partner’: Peru’s Fujimori plans to intensify ties with the US 

Peru plans to deepen its relations with the United States, which it sees as a “strategic partner”, according to newly appointed Foreign Minister Carlos Espa.

In remarks on Friday, he explained that Peru will also work to restore diplomatic ties with Mexico and Colombia and take initial steps to rebuild relations with Venezuela.

Espa was named Peru’s top diplomat this week as part of President Keiko Fujimori‘s conservative cabinet. He spent years working at the US embassy in Lima as a communications director, a background that has fuelled expectations of a foreign policy more closely aligned with Washington.

Fujimori was sworn in on Tuesday after narrowly winning an election dominated by voters’ fears over soaring crime.

A former first lady, she has signalled she plans to strengthen cooperation with the US, noting her government will dedicate “very significant space” for collaboration with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Washington has mounted its most assertive push in years to shore up its influence in Peru, a major copper producer that has become a key strategic partner for China.

The Trump administration has sought to counter Beijing’s growing influence in Latin America and aggressively confront criminal networks in the region, framing both as major national security concerns.

Under Trump, the US has also embraced an updated version of the Monroe Doctrine — dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine” — which would establish the Western Hemisphere as a US sphere of influence.

The Trump administration has also invited right-wing governments to join the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, also known as the Shield of the Americas, which is dedicated to coordinating military campaigns against cartels and other criminal organisations.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Espa said Peru was moving forward with plans to join the Shield of the Americas as part of Fujimori’s proposed crackdown on crime.

Trump has largely backed the candidacy of right-wing leaders in Latin America since returning to office for a second term, offering endorsements and promising support.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau attended Fujimori’s inauguration.

Fujimori defeated her left-wing rival Roberto Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes in June’s run-off after losing three previous presidential bids.

She became Peru’s ninth president in a decade. Peru has seen significant political upheaval, with multiple presidents resigning or being impeached before their terms were complete.

Fujimori took over from interim left-wing leader Josa Maria Balcazar, whom Congress named to the presidency after three successive presidents were removed from office.

As leader of the powerful Fuerza Popular party, Fujimori has moulded her political career around that of her father, Alberto Fujimori.

During the 1990s, the elder Fujimori was accused of leading an authoritarian government, after dissolving both Peru’s Congress and its Supreme Court. Keiko served as her father’s first lady after his bitter divorce from her mother.

After his presidency, in 2005, Alberto Fujimori was arrested. He was eventually convicted of corruption and crimes against humanity, including for extrajudicial killings and a campaign of forced sterilisation among rural and Indigenous people.

But he was controversially pardoned and released from prison in late 2023, shortly before his death the following year.

Keiko Fujimori has held her father’s memory up as an example of the stability and strength she can bring to Peru.