Peru’s defense and foreign ministers resigned, alleging that interim president José María Balcázar misled the country about a fighter jet purchase agreement that, according to them, was signed despite the president’s denials.
The $3.5 billion deal to buy 24 F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin was expected to be signed on Friday. Balcázar canceled it at the last minute, stating that the country’s next elected president is the one who should decide on the issue. However, two senior officials now claim the contract was signed by the military on Monday.
“Balcázar lied to the country, he knew that two contracts were signed on Monday” to buy the fighters, said resigning chancellor Hugo de Zela, in a radio interview RPP this Wednesday.
Continues after advertising
The statements increase pressure on Balcázar, an 83-year-old interim leader of a far-left party, who has resisted supporting the purchase despite insistence from Washington and the Peruvian Armed Forces. The military sees the new fleet not only as a reinforcement of firepower, but also as a way to obtain, albeit implicitly, support from the United States. Balcázar took office in February and his term only runs until July.
“A strategic decision was made on a national security issue on which I maintain significant disagreements,” Defense Minister Carlos Díaz Dañino said in his resignation letter, referring to the fighter jets.
Balcázar declared that any decision to sign the fighter jet agreement without his approval would be irregular. The president and the Ministry of Economy still control the release of any resources for the purchase, according to Luis Miguel Castilla, former Minister of Economy and former Peruvian ambassador to the USA.
“Ultimately, the president has the political power to authorize it or not and to choose not to issue a decree” that makes payment possible, Castilla said in an interview.
That decision could come soon, as an initial payment is already due, according to De Zela.
“Today is a decisive day because the contract establishes that today is the deadline for making the first payment,” stated the former chancellor in the radio interview.
Continues after advertising
Peru is in the midst of general elections, with conservative Keiko Fujimori prepared to contest the second round in June against leftist Roberto Sánchez or former Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga. Both Fujimori and López Aliaga have already declared that Peru should sign the contract with Lockheed, while Sánchez questions why the country needs to spend billions on defense instead of investing in social programs.
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.
