Peru Court Ends 18-Month Kuczynski Travel Ban Early
PERU · JUSTICE
Key Facts
- —The country Peru is an Andean nation whose mining shipments made up 75.6% of its export value in the first half of 2026.
- —Who Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 88, known at home as PPK, was Peru’s president from 2016 to 2018.
- —What happened A Lima court ended the Kuczynski travel ban in an order dated Wednesday, 7 October, first reported on Friday, 9 October.
- —The US link Kuczynski was stopped at Lima’s airport on the night of 7 June 2025 while trying to fly to Miami.
- —The case An appeals court threw out the 2016 campaign-finance case against him in a ruling dated Thursday, 20 August 2026.
- —Still open A larger Odebrecht-linked case awaits trial, and the state may still seek civil damages in the closed case.
A Peruvian court has lifted the travel ban on ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 88, who tried to fly to the United States in 2025. The Kuczynski travel ban had been imposed in a money-laundering case over donations to his 2016 campaign.
The court sent orders to Peru’s migration agency and the national police to enforce the decision. RPP, a Lima news broadcaster, reported the order late on Friday, 9 October, after an appeals court closed the criminal case in August.
What the Court Decided
The order came from the Fourth National Preparatory Investigation Court, a Lima court that supervises major criminal inquiries before trial. It ruled that the Kuczynski travel ban had lost its legal force because the case behind it had been closed.
The court sent official letters to the Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones, Peru’s border and passport agency, and to the National Police. It also ordered that police, criminal and judicial records created by the case be annulled, RPP reported.
RPP said it had access to the resolution, which is dated Wednesday, 7 October.
The 2016 Campaign Case
Prosecutors opened the inquiry after five people listed as donors to Kuczynski’s 2016 campaign denied in December 2018 that they had given money. They appeared as contributors to Peruanos por el Kambio, his now-defunct party, whose initials matched his own.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, Peru’s independent prosecution service, accused him of aggravated money laundering as a member of a criminal organisation. It attributed four sets of facts to him, according to RPP.
On Monday, 4 May 2026, Judge Margarita Salcedo rejected a defence motion arguing that the alleged facts were not a crime. In a ruling dated Thursday, 20 August, the Third National Criminal Appeals Chamber reversed her and closed the case for good.
RPP reported that ruling on Friday, 18 September. The chamber preserved the Peruvian state’s right to seek civil damages, which the state’s legal defence office would have to pursue under current procedural rules.
The Flight to the United States
The Kuczynski travel ban dates back to the night of Saturday, 7 June 2025. A migration alert stopped him from boarding a flight to the United States at Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport, Caretas, a Lima weekly, reported.
He was flying to Miami and then on to Wisconsin for a heart check-up, El Comercio, a Lima daily, reported. He also planned to see his wife, former first lady Nancy Lange, who left Peru in March 2018.
Prosecutor Carlos Puma told the court that he saw an imminent risk that Kuczynski would flee, El Tiempo reported. Judge Salcedo ordered an 18-month travel ban the next day, Sunday, 8 June 2025.
Kuczynski denied any plan to escape, saying his only asset abroad was a pension from his years of work in the United States. “I want to die with dignity,” he said in a television interview after the ruling, according to Expreso, a Lima daily.
On Friday, 22 August 2025, the appeals chamber confirmed the 18-month Kuczynski travel ban. It rejected the prosecutor’s request for 36 months, citing the complexity of the case and the former president’s health, Caretas reported.
A Former President in Frail Health
Kuczynski turned 88 a few days before the order, Infobae reported on Wednesday, 7 October. People close to him denied a hoax about his death that week, saying he has several chronic illnesses but is stable.
Mercedes Aráoz, his former vice-president, told Infobae he was waiting for a recent court ruling in his favour to be carried out. She said she had visited him in Lima on Tuesday, 6 October.
He still faces a larger money-laundering case over alleged payments from the Brazilian builder Odebrecht to companies linked to him. He was under house arrest in that case from 2019 to 2022, Gestión, a Lima business daily, reported.
Gestión reported on 1 September 2025 that a court had sent that case to trial, with prosecutors seeking 35 years in prison. His lawyer, Julio Midolo, said in August 2026 that it still had no trial date, El Comercio reported.
What It Means for You
For US readers, the order removes the court ban that has kept Kuczynski in Peru since his attempted trip to Miami in June 2025. Whether he travels now depends on his health and on any limits set in his other cases.
For investors, the decision does not end Kuczynski’s legal troubles, because the larger Odebrecht-linked case still awaits trial. The background is in this guide to why Peru’s presidents keep falling.
The decision concerns one man and one case. It has no effect on ordinary travellers to Peru.
What Is Not Known
It is not known whether Kuczynski plans to travel abroad, or when. No trip to the United States has been announced.
It is also unclear whether the courts in his other cases have set travel limits of their own. Prosecutors have not said publicly whether they will challenge the order.
More: Peru news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Pedro Pablo Kuczynski banned from leaving Peru?
A migration alert stopped him at Lima’s airport on 7 June 2025 as he tried to fly to Miami. A judge then imposed an 18-month travel ban in his 2016 campaign-finance case.
Why was the Kuczynski travel ban lifted?
An appeals court closed the campaign-finance case in a ruling dated 20 August 2026. A Lima court then ruled, in an order dated 7 October, that the Kuczynski travel ban had lost its legal force.
Is Kuczynski cleared of everything?
No. The criminal case over his 2016 campaign is closed, but the state may still seek civil damages. He also awaits trial in a larger Odebrecht-linked case in which prosecutors seek 35 years in prison.
Can Kuczynski now travel to the United States?
The order ends the Kuczynski travel ban in this case and was sent to Peru’s migration agency and police. Whether he travels depends on his health and on any limits in his other cases.
Sources: RPP, Poder Judicial levanta la orden de impedimento de salida del país contra Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (resolution of 7 October 2026), 9 October 2026; RPP, Poder Judicial archivó proceso penal contra Pedro Pablo Kuczynski por presuntos aportes irregulares a su campaña del 2016, 18 September 2026; Caretas, Poder Judicial confirma impedimento de salida del país para Pedro Pablo Kuczynski por 18 meses, 23 August 2025; El Tiempo, Adelantan para hoy audiencia de impedimento de salida contra PPK ante intento de viajar a EE.UU., 8 June 2025; Expreso, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski tras nuevo impedimento de salida del Perú: Quiero morir con dignidad, 16 June 2025; El Comercio, PPK: Defensa presenta apelación para revocar impedimento de salida del país dictado contra expresidente por 18 meses, 11 June 2025; Gestión, Corte Superior Nacional dispone inicio de juicio oral contra Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 1 September 2025; El Comercio, Defensa de PPK evalúa acciones contra el Estado tras concluir procesos judiciales, 4 August 2026; Infobae, PPK tiene varias enfermedades crónicas pero está bien, informa su entorno, 7 October 2026; Andina, Peru: Mining exports exceed US$42.692 billion in 1H 2026, 9 October 2026.
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