The Evolving Transnational Crime-Terrorism Nexus in Peru and its Strategic Relevance for the U.S. and the Region

A Peruvian family-clan, in coordination with Mexican narco-traffickers, was using the facility to insert the cocaine into blocks of coal, to be shipped from the Pacific Coast ports of Callao (Lima) and Paita to Spain and Belgium.2 Experts estimate that Peru now exports more than 200 tons of cocaine per year,3 and by late 2014, the country had replaced Colombia as the world's number one producer of coca leaves, used to make the drug.4 With its strategic geographic location both on the Pacific coast, and in the middle of South America, Peru is today becoming a narcotrafficking hub for four continents, supplying not only the U.S. and Canada, but also Europe, Russia, and rapidly expanding markets in Brazil, Chile, and Asia. Peru currently reflects not only a delicate balance between state-led and free-market-led orientations to development, but also a balance between populist and clientelistic, versus rule-of-law based approaches to addressing social and ethnic inequality. [...]more than any nation in the Americas, Peru currently maintains a balance in its economic, political, and military relationships with the United States, China, and Russia.