US Visa Ban Hits Judge at Center of Chinese Port Dispute in Peru

The Trump administration’s decision to revoke the visa of a Peruvian judge who sided with a Chinese company in a port dispute puts a new spotlight on the growing US-China rivalry in Latin America.

Judge Juan Carlos Núñez is the only Peruvian named in the latest round of US visa restrictions targeting 17 Latin Americans, mostly officials it accused of corruption and undermining democratic governance. The State Department framed the move as a show of support for members of the Shield of the Americas, a US-led security alliance that Peru recently joined.

The Department didn’t say what Núñez specifically did to warrant the visa revocation, noting only that he fell under a new policy targeting individuals deemed harmful to democratic governance in the region.

In Peru, Núñez has drawn attention for several rulings, including one overturning a pretrial detention order against a former mayor investigated for alleged corruption tied to former leftist President Pedro Castillo and another granting an injunction to a businessman who had been investigated for alleged drug trafficking.

But it was Núñez’s decision over the Chinese-owned Chancay port that sparked some of Washington’s most direct criticism yet of Peru’s close ties with China, prompting a US warning that Peru was losing sovereignty over the facility.

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The day the State Department announced the visa revocations, US Ambassador to Lima Bernie Navarro cast the action against Núñez as a crackdown on corruption and warned in a post on his personal X account that this was “only beginning.” He did not refer to the Chinese port in his comments, and his office declined to comment on the matter.

The ambassador also reposted a photo of Judge Núñez with the message: “Now you’re popular! Hope it was worth it...”

Núñez declined to comment, while the Peruvian government hasn’t spoken publicly about his visa revocation so far.

Unresolved Dispute

At issue is the $1.3 billion Chancay port on the Pacific coast, operated by Chinese-owned Cosco Shipping Ports and inaugurated in 2024. It was conceived as a crucial new trade link between Asia and Latin America and has become a flashpoint between Washington and Beijing as Trump seeks to expand US influence across the region. China is Peru’s No. 1 trading partner, followed by the US.

A legal dispute emerged over how much oversight Peruvian infrastructure regulator Ositran has over the port. In January, Núñez ruled that the port was exempt from some regulatory oversight. While Ositran regulates Peru’s other major ports which are concessions on public land, Chancay is privately owned.

“Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty,” the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs wrote in February in a post on X following the decision.

Núñez’s first ruling was later overturned by a higher court. The case is now at the Constitutional Court, with Cosco arguing that Ositran changed the rules of the game by claiming full authority to regulate all aspects of the facility. This requires paying the regulator 1% of all sales, an extra cost that wasn’t included in Cosco’s original calculations when it decided to invest in Chancay.

China has invested heavily in Peru in recent years, including in the power and mining sectors. Meanwhile, the US has designated Peru as a major non-NATO ally and is negotiating a contract worth as much as $1.5 billion to be paid by Peru to build a new naval base for the Andean country a short distance from Chancay.

The judge’s visa revocation was part of a broader US action stripping visas from individuals in Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador over unrelated allegations.

The State Department also barred Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca from entering the US for allegedly accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking. Mariaca, who was appointed two years ago under Bolivia’s left-wing former President Luis Arce, has pushed an investigation into political strategist Fernando Cerimedo, known as “MAGA’s Man” in Latin America.

Mariaca, who has denied wrongdoing, was arrested in Bolivia on Wednesday.