Peru names Alvaro Vargas Llosa as US envoy pick

Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori said Alvaro Vargas Llosa has accepted the post of Peru's next ambassador to the United States, though the appointment still requires legal review before confirmation.

Fujimori said Friday in an interview with RPP radio that she believed Vargas Llosa would be “a great ambassador of Peru to the United States.” Vargas Llosa wrote on X that he would put his experience and effort at the service of the mission entrusted to him.

Peru has not had an ambassador in Washington since Fujimori took office in July. The previous ambassador, Alfredo Ferrero, was dismissed in June.

Alvaro Vargas Llosa is the son of the late Nobel Prize-winning author and politician Mario Vargas Llosa, who lost the 1990 presidential election to Keiko Fujimori's father, Alberto Fujimori. Both Mario Vargas Llosa and his son have criticised the former leader.

The announcement came a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Peru. Ahead of the visit, Peru joined the “Shield of the Americas,” a US-led coalition promoted by President Donald Trump to combat drug trafficking and organised crime across the region.