Overview
- Gen. Francis L. Donovan met Peru’s defense minister and senior military leaders in Iquitos on Oct. 14 to discuss stepped-up cooperation against narcoterrorist and transnational criminal networks.
- Officials agreed to deepen tactical intelligence sharing, joint exercises and logistical support focused on the VRAEM coca basin and border zones such as Putumayo and El Estrecho.
- Peru’s defense minister said the partnership will feed actionable intelligence into a national Comando Unificado to fight killings, extortion and trafficking, while Peruvian authorities ruled out foreign combat troop deployments.
- The visits included travel by Bell‑Boeing V‑22 Osprey to the El Estrecho base and the CU PUMA unified command in Iquitos, underscoring operational planning beyond diplomatic talks.
- The engagement builds on Peru’s Sept. 10 accession to Escudo de las Américas and places bilateral steps inside multilateral A3C frameworks, which could lead to more U.S. training rotations and shared regional surveillance assets.