Peruvian senator Mirtha Vásquez will fly to China on the Chinese Embassy's dime, right when senators should be meeting their voters. Beijing courts Peru with free trips, a megaport and more than 30,000 million dollars in investment, while a 2023 paid junket went unpunished and a president lost his office over a dinner with a Chinese businessman. Nobody flies you to Beijing for nothing.
China invested for two decades while Washington looked away. Now Uruguay warns Europe to ratify Mercosur or lose South America to Beijing. A hard look at how Washington, Brussels, and China have approached Latin America, and why America needs a real Latin America strategy before it loses the hemisphere for good, before it is too late.
Peru's Chancay port ruling on June 19, 2026 handed the Peruvian government a first-instance win over COSCO Shipping, a company the Pentagon officially classifies as a Chinese Military Company. But COSCO is already appealing, a bigger battle over general port oversight is still alive, and Keiko Fujimori may soon inherit the whole dispute.
Chile just offered Argentina its Pacific ports to ship Vaca Muerta gas to Asia, a defensive move against Peru's Chinese-built Chancay megaport. The Chile China corridor story also touches lithium, a surging Chinese fishing fleet, and a submarine cable fight that disrupted Chile's own presidential transition. Here is the full picture.
A deal to modernize Peru's naval base, backed by the United States, will upgrade Callao for $1,500 million, fully paid by Peru's own bonds, zero U.S. taxpayer dollars. Just 80 kilometers away, China's Cosco Shipping controls the Chancay megaport after a court ruling limited Peru's oversight. Keiko Fujimori, a likely incoming president, would push for closer defense ties with the United States and would scrutinize more closely China's role in Peru.
China's proposed Brazil-Peru railway is a massive infrastructure project designed to bypass the Panama Canal and secure resources for Beijing. While leftist leaders like Lula ignore national sovereignty, this Belt and Road scheme threatens U.S. security and pristine ecosystems. Discover why this rapidly expands Chinese regional power.
