Presidential Resignations and Political Turmoil Over Peru’s Controversial F-16 Jet Deal with the U.S.

Two cabinet-level ministers in Peru have resigned after interim President Jose Maria Balcazar announced he would defer a decision to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States company Lockheed Martin.

Defence Minister Carlos Diaz and Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela cited their opposition to the move in their resignation letters on Wednesday, with Diaz writing that “a strategic decision has been taken in the area of national security with which I have a fundamental disagreement.”

Last week, the left-wing Balcazar — Peru’s ninth president in a decade — announced he would leave the decision about whether to invest $3.5bn in the purchase to the country’s next elected leader, explaining that he was not pulling out of the deal but felt the next presidential administration should be involved in making such a hefty financial commitment.

Balcazar himself had only been in office since February, selected by Congress to replace the latest in a string of impeached presidents.

Last week, he abruptly cancelled a signing ceremony for the F-16 deal, which would have seen an initial batch of 12 new planes added to Peru’s ageing air force. The country aims to acquire 24 jets overall.

Balcazar explained he was not pulling out of the deal, but that he felt the next presidential administration should be involved in making such a hefty financial commitment. “For us to commit such a large sum of money to the incoming government would be a poor practice for a transitional government,” Balcazar said at the time.

He added that Peru remains firm in respecting all agreements that may have been reached at the level of the armed forces, or in this case, with the relevant ministry of the air force, to carry out the corresponding negotiations.

The fighter jets have long been a source of controversy in Peru, where critics have questioned whether the purchase is a sign of deference to US President Donald Trump.

Before Wednesday’s cabinet crisis, before the U.S. Fighter jet deal collapsed, and before Washington’s ambassador issued a public threat as two key Peruvian ministers submitted their resignations, the troubled South American had already cycled through eight presidents in ten years, none of whom finished their terms.

This context highlights a decade-long democratic breakdown that has consumed presidents faster than elections can replace them, hollowed out institutions meant to govern 33 million people, and turned the world’s eighth-largest copper producer into one of Latin America’s most ungovernable democracies.