More information about Peru is available on the Peru Page and from other Department of State publications and other sources listed at the end of this fact sheet.

U.S.-Peru Relations

The United States established diplomatic relations with Peru in 1827, six years after Peru’s independence from Spain. The United States and Peru enjoy a strategic partnership based on the shared values and interests of democracy, human rights, security, and mutually beneficial trade. The United States partners with Peru in its aspirations to be a regional leader, to promote economic opportunities for U.S. businesses, to strengthen citizen safety and security, and to combat transnational criminal organizations.

Priorities

The United States and Peru enjoy a strong, mutually beneficial partnership that works to advance regional priorities such as increased trade, irregular migration, the environment and climate change, health systems, and inclusive economic and educational opportunities for vulnerable populations.

U.S. Assistance to Peru The Department of State and USAID provided $240 million in FY 2022 foreign assistance to Peru, including $100 million in humanitarian assistance and $140 million in development, security, and health assistance. The United States and Peru enjoy strong cooperation across a range of shared priorities, including the rule of law; safe, secure, and humane migration management; human rights; and inclusive socio-economic programs. U.S. assistance supports common U.S. and Peruvian priorities, including promoting effective governance and economic prosperity; increasing access to justice for all Peruvians; countering narcotics through eradication, interdiction, and alternative development; combatting corruption, environmental crimes, and trafficking in persons; integrating Venezuelan migrants and refugees; fostering regional peacekeeping capacities; military professionalization and security sector governance, and promoting effective governance and economic prosperity.

For more than 61 years, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has worked in Peru, investing more than $4.2 billion in more than 1,500 programs to promote economic, social, and political development. Today, USAID’s targeted strategy supports the country’s current challenges in government effectiveness and to prevent corruption, in line with Peru’s own development goals and U.S. foreign policy.

USAID provides specialized technical assistance for the Government of Peru to better invest its own resources in four areas: 1) economic and social development in areas affected by illicit coca cultivation; 2) improved democratic systems for transparent, inclusive, and accountable governance; 3) increased climate resilience; and 4) socio-economic integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees. USAID also works to catalyze private sector investment in development, leveraging more than $137 million in Peru in FY 2020. USAID supports special regional initiatives, such as responding to the Venezuelan migration crisis and promoting conservation of the Amazon biome (a U.S. Congressional directive).

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and USAID have provided both humanitarian assistance and longer-term socio-economic integration assistance for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Peru.

Humanitarian assistance includes cash transfers for food, protection services, including assistance with registration and regularization, and support to survivors of gender-based violence. Longer-term assistance focuses on socio-economic integration through job skills training, business development, access to credit, and re-accreditation for professionals. According to international organizations, as of June 2023, the United States contributed $281 million in support of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Peru.

The Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Labor each provide foreign assistance to Peru to combat trafficking in persons – a priority for both countries. In 2017, senior officials signed the U.S.-Peru Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership, a jointly developed five-year plan to build on Peru’s existing efforts to prosecute and punish perpetrators of child trafficking; identify child trafficking victims and coordinate the provision of comprehensive protective services; and prevent child trafficking from occurring. To date, the Department of State has provided $8.9 million in support of this CPC Partnership and invests an additional $1.43 million in other projects to combat trafficking in persons. Peru and the United States agreed in 2022 to extend the CPC for an additional two-year term.

The United States pursues the objective of shared prosperity with Peru through supporting transparent procurement processes and sound mineral sector governance. Through the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States helps Peru combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing that threatens both fragile ecosystems and an important export industry providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. In addition, the Department of Defense Southern Command entered into an agreement in June 2021 with the international nonprofit organization Global Fishing Watch to detect, deter, and identify illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in Peru and throughout the hemisphere.

The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) has worked for 45 years with its Peruvian partners to reduce crime, increase access to justice, and strengthen security institutions for the benefit of both the United States and Peru. INL’s FY 2022 budget of $47.8 million will support community policing, counternarcotics, rule of law, anti-money laundering, asset forfeiture, and drug demand reduction programs.

Since 2006, the Department of Defense Southern Command, through its Humanitarian Assistance Program, has invested more than $54.8 million in 287 projects in Peru including the construction of 18 Regional Emergency Operations Centers.

Approximately 4,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Peru since 1962 and continue to work with their communities on projects focused on economic development, health, water and sanitation, and youth development. More than 3,500 Peruvians study in the United States and almost 4,000 U.S. students study in Peru. The Fulbright Commission in Peru, supported by annual U.S. government allocation, plans, and administers Fulbright Program educational exchanges. Through the Fulbright Program, nearly 1,900 Peruvian scholars, professionals and students have traveled to the United States and more than 1,200 U.S. citizens have come to Peru to study, teach, and conduct research and increase mutual understanding between the countries.

Through a network of eight binational centers (BNCs), with a total of 30 branch offices countrywide, the United States provides opportunities for English instruction to an average of 90,000 students every month from middle and lower-income families, as well as educational exchanges, cultural outreach, and academic advising at EducationUSA centers for students wishing to study in the United States. BNCs have an online reach with more than 1.4 million followers combined through their social media accounts. Today, activities including English language classes, EducationUSA advising, and library services are provided virtually, in person, and in a hybrid format.

There are eight EducationUSA advising centers throughout Peru, offering students accurate, comprehensive, and current information about opportunities to study at accredited U.S. higher education institutions. These advising centers are located at binational centers as well as Fulbright Peru and the University of Piura. During the academic year from 2021-2022, 4,335 Peruvian students studied at U.S. colleges and universities. The EducationUSA Opportunity Funds Program provides advising services and covers the upfront costs for diverse, high-achieving, economically disadvantaged students to apply to study at U.S. higher education institutions.

Since 2001, Peru has received more than $3.5 million through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation for 34 conservation projects in 16 regions throughout Peru. Cultural heritage programs support the cultural property agreement first signed in 1997 and extended every five years. This agreement imposes U.S. import restrictions on archaeological and colonial period material from Peru while encouraging the legal sharing of cultural property for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes. Since the agreement entered into force, the government and citizens of the United States have returned more than 2,000 cultural objects to Peru.

Bilateral Economic Relations

Economic and commercial ties deepened with the 2009 entry into force of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), a cornerstone of the bilateral relationship. The PTPA sets high standards for both countries on market access, investment safeguards, intellectual property rights, and environmental and labor rights protections. Two-way trade in goods between the United States and Peru increased from $9.1 billion in 2009 to $22.2 billion in 2022, driving growth and employment in both countries. Bilateral food and agricultural trade jumped from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $5.4 billion in 2022 – an increase of 260 percent.

The United States continues to work with Peru to combat nature crimes like wildlife and timber trafficking. Examples of this include support for improving enforcement and building regional cooperation as was highlighted at the First High Level Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in the Americas held in Lima, Peru, in 2019 and support to the South American Wildlife Enforcement Network (SudWEN). As a transnational crime, wildlife trafficking supports criminal organizations, increases corruption, undermines the rule of law, harms community livelihoods, and increases the risk of zoonotic disease spillover.

The United States supports the work of the Secretariat for Submissions on Environmental Enforcement Matters (Secretariat), established under articles 18.8 and 18.9 of the Environment Chapter (Chapter 18) of the PTPA. The role of the Secretariat is to receive and consider submissions from the public on matters regarding effective enforcement of environmental laws pursuant to the PTPA, as well as promote transparency and public engagement in the environmental decision making and enforcement process. To date, the Secretariat has received eight submissions on a range of environmental topics. Two submissions have been developed into Factual Records and focus on the construction of roads through indigenous areas without proper consultation, and improper regulation of sulfur content in diesel fuels (which impacts human health and air quality). The United States provided more than $1.87 million in funding to this mechanism.

Under the Environmental Cooperation Agreement (ECA), developed in parallel to the PTPA, the United States will continue to work with Peru to enhance environmental cooperation to help protect, improve, and preserve the environment, including the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Peruvian stakeholders played a key role in the development of a new South America Network for One Health (SANO) — which was a deliverable for the 2022 Summit of the Americas. Peruvian institutions also hosted U.S. Science Envoy Christine Kreuder Johnson, of the University of California at Davis, for extended consultations on One Health (human-animal-environment matters) in March 2023.

Migration Issues

The United States works with the Government of Peru to address the root causes of irregular migration and to implement humane migration management policies that prioritize regional security, respect for migrants’ rights, and access to international protection for those in need. Twenty-one countries, including Peru, endorsed the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection in June 2022, which established a new framework of how nations throughout the region collectively and humanely manage migration in the Western Hemisphere. Peru currently is the President Pro Tempore of the South American Conference on Migration. The United States works closely with the Government of Peru and implementing partners in-country to promote regularization and integration processes that affect migrants by improving their living status within Peruvian society. Peru’s temporary amnesty for irregular migrants or migrants with elapsed status and its regularization program will offer protection and access to services for up to 900,000 mostly Venezuelan migrants and refugees. Peru hosts more than 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the second largest population of Venezuelan refugees and migrants behind Colombia.

Peru’s Membership in International Organizations

Peru and the United States belong to several of the same international organizations, including the United Nations, Organization of American States, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.

Peru will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2024. This is the third time Peru welcomed APEC member economies, with prior occasions in 2008 and 2016. Peru hosted the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) held in October 5-7, 2022. Within the framework of the OAS, Peru hosted the VIII Summit of the Americas on April 13-14, 2018, to discuss political and economic priorities in the region and collective ways to counter corruption.

Bilateral Representation

Principal U.S. Embassy officials are listed in the Department’s Key Officers List.

The U.S. Embassy maintains a Consular Agency in Cusco for emergency and other services to U.S. citizens resident or traveling to the Cusco region.

Peru maintains an embassy  in the United States at 1700 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036; tel. (202) 833-9860. The Embassy of Peru in the United States provides consular services through its Consulates General in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Hartford, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Washington, and New York.

More information about Peru is available from the Department of State and other sources, some of which are listed here:

CIA World Factbook Peru Page 
U.S. Embassy
USAID Peru Page 
History of U.S. Relations With Peru
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Countries Page 
U.S. Census Bureau Foreign Trade Statistics 
Export.gov International Offices Page 
Millennium Challenge Corporation: Peru 
Library of Congress Country Studies 
Travel Information

U.S. Department of State

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