President Donald Trump and his foreign policy program notched another win last week when Peru officially cut diplomatic ties with Tehran. Citing human rights violations and support for international terrorism, the government of new President Keiko Fujimori announced the decision on Tuesday. Iran’s ambassadors were informed via its embassy in Ecuador, as Iran has no representation inside of Peru.
This reversal comes after a wave of conservative victories in Latin America since 2024. In January of this year, Panama’s right-wing leader, President José Raúl Mulino, abided by a Supreme Court of Panama ruling that invalidated a concession granting the Hong Kong company C.K. Hutchinson Holdings rights to operate the Balboa and Cristobal ports on the Panama Canal. The denial of operations for C.K. Hutchinson Holdings, which the Trump administration has accused of being a front for the Chinese Communist Party, has so far proven to be an economic blow for Beijing.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, President Abelardo de la Espriella has agreed to aid the U.S. in its war on narco-terrorism by extraditing the leaders of several cartel groups to the U.S. to face drug-related charges. Honduras, now led by right-wing President Nasry Asfura, is considering re-establishing ties with Taiwan after left-wing leader Xiomara Castro severed them as a favor to China in 2023. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador continues to play an active role in President Trump’s mass deportation efforts by allowing U.S. authorities to deport suspected gang members, terrorists, and others to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, located in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
Even further south, Javier Milei’s government remains a bulwark of pro-American, pro-Western governance. Now, thanks to the narrow election of President Fujimori, Peru appears headed in the same direction. President Fujimori, who came to power on a strict law-and-order mandate after ten years of incredible political and social turmoil in the South American republic, has publicly declared her intention to join President Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” initiative, which promises to use regional partners to take down drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
Peru’s decision to sever ties with Iran is a major reversal of fortunes for the Middle Eastern nation. Previously, during the Obama and Biden administrations, security officials warned of Iran’s growing influence in Latin America. Via the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah, Iran’s paramilitary proxy based in Lebanon, Tehran once used its financial might to support and supply various drug cartels in Latin America, plus IRGC militants provided training for the infamous Colectivo militias of Venezuela’s socialist government. As recently as 2023, Brazilian intelligence authorities disrupted a Hezbollah cell that planned on attacking Jewish targets in the tropical nation.
President Fujimori’s rightward governance and her decision to follow President Trump’s lead is not surprising. She is the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 until 2000. The elder Fujimori came to power following Peru’s “Lost Decade” of economic stagnation. As president, Alberto Fujimori distinguished himself by successfully dismantling and prosecuting a violent communist insurgency led by the Maoist Shining Path and the Cuban-backed Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Following his third administration, President Fujimori was accused of crimes against humanity stemming from accusations of corruption, human rights abuses, etc. He absconded to Japan but was eventually arrested by Chilean police in Santiago in 2005. The former president was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison but was pardoned by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2017. He died in 2024 at age 86.
