Peru is the largest producer of gold in Latin America.
A wave of violence linked to illegal mining has afflicted Peru. In Pataz, a province deep in the Andean hinterlands, several mafias are vying for control of gold resources. Poderosa, a mining company operating in the province, says 39 workers have been killed there in the past three years. Two mass graves have been discovered since October 2024. During the covid-19 pandemic, parqueros (gold robbers) occupied tunnels in Pataz, hiring gangsters as guards; soon the mafias took over the mines. A state of emergency has seen the army deployed to Pataz since February 2024 with little effect.
The Peruvian Institute of Economics reckons the country exported $4.8bn of illegal gold in 2024, representing 44% of total gold exports, up from 20% a decade earlier. Gangs are now thought to make more money from gold than from narcotics.
In 2012 Peru's government set up REINFO, a registry that exempts unlicensed miners from criminal sanctions while they work to comply with regulations and prove their rights to the land they mine. The scheme has largely failed: just 2.3% of registrants end up getting permits. In practice it provides cover for gangs who use it to launder illegal gold by buying or stealing papers from registered miners. REINFO was intended to be temporary. Its remit was due to expire on June 30th 2025 but will probably be extended, as the government delayed a previous deadline after miners blocked Lima's streets.
Four of Peru's former presidents are behind bars. In March 2025 President Dina Boluarte called a general election for April 2026 to put an end to the lawlessness that has descended on Peru, including street-gang shakedowns, contract killings, illegal mining and corrupt cops. José Jerí took over as interim president but held office for just four months. The 39-year-old styled himself as tough on crime. On February 17th 2026 Congress voted to impeach him after clandestine meetings with a Chinese businessman became public, raising questions about conflicts of interest—a scandal known as Chifagate (after chifa, the local term for a Chinese restaurant, in one of which the meetings took place). Before his impeachment, Mr Jerí had ditched plans for a Chinese naval vessel to visit Peru and signalled he would buy American F-16s instead of Swedish Gripen jets. On February 18th Congress chose José María Balcázar, a far-left 83-year-old, as his replacement; Mr Balcázar will run Peru until July 2026 before yielding to the winner of elections on April 12th. A record-high 43 parties registered for the election. No candidate is likely to gather a simple majority, so a second-round vote in June 2026 is all but guaranteed. Peruvians have been hit by a wave of violent crime while much-needed reforms have failed to materialise.
As of August 2025 Rafael López Aliaga, the conservative mayor of Lima, topped the Ipsos voting-intention list for the first time, just ahead of Keiko Fujimori, though he only just squeaked into double-digit support—a sign of Peru's extreme electoral fragmentation. Martín Vizcarra, a recently convicted ex-president who is appealing his conviction, has a brother running on a promise to pardon him.
In the election on April 12th 2026 a record 35 candidates ran for the presidency. Logistical failures by ONPE, Peru's election organiser, caused long delays at polling stations in Lima; voting was extended to a second day at nearly 200 stations. ONPE's head resigned on April 21st. Keiko Fujimori won enough votes to secure a place in the run-off scheduled for June 7th. The race for second place remained too close to call: Roberto Sánchez, a leftist whose slogan was "We're not a poor country, we're a looted country", led Rafael López Aliaga by fewer than 20,000 votes, with a complete count unlikely before mid-May. Preliminary analysis suggests the absentee rate caused by the polling debacle in Lima may have cost Mr López Aliaga thousands of votes. He has vowed an "insurgency" unless the election is annulled and accused the electoral court of a plot against him. Election observers found no evidence of fraud. The three top candidates together won less than half of the vote; whoever wins will have a weak mandate.
Tensions with the United States compounded the turmoil. Peru's interim president tried to back out of a deal to buy American F-16 fighter jets, arguing that his successor should decide; the US ambassador responded angrily and the deal went through, but on April 22nd the foreign and defence ministers resigned over the affair.
Peru is a major cocaine-producing country. Coca farming is expanding deep into the Amazon basin for convenient export to Brazil. More than half of seizures of Peruvian exports are now of "coca base", a less refined product than pure cocaine. Traffickers have developed techniques to disguise cocaine—mixing it into passion-fruit pulp and chemically masking it to thwart testing kits, a method Peruvians call neutralizados. General Nilton Santos Villalta, the head of Peru's anti-narcotics police, says the chemist who makes a neutralizado is often flown to Peru and then on to the destination port, being the only person who knows the formula to convert it back. See cocaine trade.
Peru's parliament has passed laws that make it harder to investigate crimes, including a requirement for defence lawyers to be present when search warrants are executed, which in effect gives suspects a warning to destroy evidence or flee. Rubén Vargas, a former minister of the interior, has warned that illegal economies—mainly cocaine and illegal gold—are "taking control of strategic points of the state."
Asian gangs already have a foothold in the country. A giant new Chinese-owned port in Chancay, north of Lima, intended to dominate trade between South America and China, is a particular worry for counter-narcotics officials.
In 2024 President Xi Jinping opened a Chinese-built mega-port in Chancay, just north of Lima, the most prominent of China's infrastructure investments in Latin America. The United States has the port in its sights; after a Peruvian judge ruled to restrict transport regulations there, the Americans called that a loss of Peruvian sovereignty. America's Federal Maritime Commission is watching Chancay closely. DP World, Dubai's port company, has signed deals to expand its position at Callao.
Peru's government allocated $73m to combat drug-traffickers in its 2025 budget, compared with just $17.5m to stop illegal mining.
A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.