Congresswoman Silvana Robles, the likely senator-elect in the elections held a week ago, and Congressman Guido Bellido, former prime minister, both supported the president’s position, who argued that, as interim leader, the responsibility for signing the document should fall to the next president.

  Robles rejected a public message from US Ambassador Bernardo Navarro, in which he stated that “if Washington’s interests are undermined,” “rest assured that as a representative of the Trump Administration, I will use all available tools to protect and boost the prosperity and security of our country and the region.”

  “I strongly support President Balcazar’s decision to suspend the purchase of fighter jets, a process that has been fraught with doubts, technical questions, and a worrying lack of transparency. Billions of dollars cannot be committed without clarity in the selection process,” Robles said.

  She said that Peru faces deep gaps in health, education, infrastructure, and citizen security, and that “allocating resources of this magnitude to military equipment is completely disconnected from the national reality.”

  “I strongly reject the threatening and high-handed tone of the United States ambassador. Peru is a sovereign nation, and no embassy has the right to pressure, condition, or intimidate decisions that are the exclusive responsibility of the Peruvian state,” Bellido stated, while also reaffirming his “full support for President Balcazar.”

  Meanwhile, Vladimir Cerron, the clandestine secretary general of the Peru Libre party, described Balcazar’s position as correct and said that, with less than two months until the election of a new president, “no tenders or contracts should be awarded that require continuity from the incoming government.”

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