Campaigning for Peru’s April 12 general election began months ago and although candidates’ billboards in this Amazonian city are weathered and fading, images of some of their pet projects are still visible. Many depict proposed infrastructure connecting Peru’s Amazon region with Brazil to the east and its Pacific coast to the west. A new twist in those proposals is the new Pacific port in Chancay, north of Lima, which after a year of operation has become a key shipping hub between Pacific South American countries and China. The port is 60% owned by China’s Cosco Shipping Holding Co. and 40% by Volcan Compañía Minera, a Peruvian mining arm of Integra Capital of Argentina. Experts doubt the complex will draw the same degree of U.S. government pushback against Chinese influence as have a Hong Kong company’s port-operation contracts in Panama, now canceled, and Chilean-Chinese talks on a fiber-optic... [Log in to read more]