🇵🇪 One day after being inaugurated as Peru’s first female president, Keiko Fujimori has declared a state of exception, dramatically expanding the powers of the military and security services.

Drop Site contributor Joseph Bouchard writes that the move makes Peru the latest Latin American country to impose full or restricted emergency rule in the name of fighting narco-trafficking, a rationale Washington has repeatedly used to justify intervention and expanded security cooperation across the region.

Fujimori’s decision follows years of pressure from the US and its right-wing Latin American allies for a harsher crackdown on crime, despite Peru’s comparatively low homicide and violent crime rates. Lima, Callao, border regions, and the VRAEM are expected to become the main focus of the operations.

She took office after winning by a razor-thin margin, following three consecutive presidential defeats, in a deeply polarized country where resistance to her radical agenda is already mounting. The state of exception could give her broad latitude to suppress dissent while limiting the ability of Peru’s powerful but divided Congress to rein her in.

The measure also extends the authority of the armed forces and security apparatus, which experts say are already among the country’s dominant political actors. Under President Dina Boluarte, the military was deployed against protesters and used to carry out massacres, including at the National University of San Marcos in Lima.

Fujimori, who was married to an American, holds US citizenship, and studied at American universities, has also promised to confront China’s growing influence in Peru while granting preferential diplomatic treatment to Washington. She is expected to join Trump’s Shield of the Americas, a political-military coalition that has become a pillar of support for US-aligned governments across Latin America.

One of her first diplomatic appointments was Carlos Espá as foreign minister. Espá previously worked at the US Embassy in Lima. Fujimori is also expected to expand military operations against suspected drug cartels and potentially radical left-wing groups. She has already placed the military, rather than the police, in charge of the fight against crime.

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🇦🇷❌🇧🇷⚖️👨‍⚖🤡 — Argentine President Javier Milei said that Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes imprisons political opponents and claimed that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a thief: "I was referring to the judge who imprisons people simply because they do not share his ideology!"

🇧🇷🤡🇧🇷❌🇦🇷 — The Brazilian government, under the direction of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), has decided not to send Ambassador Julio Bitelli back to Argentina and will downgrade diplomatic relations with Javier Milei's government to the level of chargés d'affaires, further isolating Brazil in the Global South.

➡️ The decision was communicated to Argentina's ambassador in Brasília, Daniel Raimondi, who received a formal note of protest following three new instances in which the Argentine president made insulting remarks after being summoned to provide explanations on July 26.

💥 According to diplomatic sources, Milei's statements demonstrate that there is no willingness to restore a proper relationship with the Brazilian government.

🇦🇷❌🇧🇷🇧🇷🤡 — Argentina's Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno described Brazil's decision to downgrade bilateral diplomatic relations as "regrettable" following Javier Milei's attacks against Lula, but said that Argentina will not respond to the withdrawal of the Brazilian ambassador from Buenos Aires

😎 The foreign minister also reiterated the Casa Rosada's support for Flávio Bolsonaro, stating that the region is changing and that he "hopes this will also happen in Brazil."

"Argentina regrets Brazil's unilateral decision. This is not the way forward. We are always willing to maintain relations and, on our part, there will be no diplomatic reaction in response to Brazil. To fight, two idiots are needed, and currently only one country is counting on that position."

🇺🇸💥 — The U.S. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, spoke about combating Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) on the ground in Latin America. Hegseth said these organizations would be targeted in the same way ISIS and Al-Qaeda are targeted in the Middle East.