In addition to being a diplomat, Carlos Zamora has been singled out for his activities as a colonel in the Directorate of Intelligence
14ymedio, Havana, 8 November 2025 — The departure of the Cuban ambassador to Peru, Carlos Rafael Zamora Rodríguez, announced in the final paragraph of an official statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lima, comes after repeated accusations against him of political activism and espionage. On October 28, Peru’s Vice Foreign Minister Félix Denegri summoned the diplomat to “discuss the activities carried out during his tenure.” Two days later, Zamora packed his bags and flew back to Havana.
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry offered little explanation. But in the halls of Congress, in the opinion columns of Peru’s leading newspapers, and on conservative television programs, the unofficial version is unanimous: Zamora was not a mere diplomat, but a political agent of the Cuban intelligence apparatus operating with immunity on Peruvian soil.
The diplomatic career of El Gallo Zamora, as he is nicknamed, has always been linked to the work of “political analysis in complex scenarios.” His “diplomatic” journey included postings such as Ecuador, Brazil, and Bolivia, countries where Havana has maintained intense activism in building the Bolivarian axis since 2000.
In Quito, between 2013 and 2016, he maintained direct dialogue not only with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also with movements aligned with Rafael Correa, especially unions and youth organizations.
Former Cuban officer Enrique García, exiled in the US, met Zamora personally at the Cuban Intelligence Directorate building, located at Línea and A, in El Vedado, Havana.
In 2019, the interim government of Jeanine Áñez in Bolivia accused Cuba and Venezuela of orchestrating the violence in the country in support of Evo Morales. The Minister of Communication, Roxana Lizárraga, stated that Zamora—then ambassador to Bolivia—was part of the Cuban intelligence network that intervened in conflicts in Nicaragua and Ecuador.
Former Cuban officer Enrique García, exiled in the US, also told the political news tabloid Perú21 that he personally met Zamora at the Cuban Intelligence Directorate building, located at Línea and A streets in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood. García further stated that both the ambassador and his wife, Maura Isabel Juampere Pérez, hold the rank of colonel within that institution.
Zamora presented his credentials in Peru in December 2021, just days after the inauguration of Pedro Castillo, the former president who was deposed and imprisoned following his failed self-coup in 2022. Various sectors of the Peruvian right have long been pressing for Zamora’s expulsion, demanding it as an act of democratic hygiene. Congresswoman Patricia Chirinos (Avanza País) accused him of “turning the Embassy into a center of ideological operations.” Retired Admiral Jorge Montoya, of Renovación Popular, went even further: “Cuba doesn’t send ambassadors, it sends G2 operatives.”
The offensive intensified when several news reports indicated meetings between the ambassador and leaders of the hardline wing of the teachers’ union SUTEP, with groups close to Perú Libre, and with student organizations that support Castillo. For the Lima right wing, Cuba was reactivating its old playbook of ideological export in Peru, this time taking advantage of a politically polarized country lacking strong institutional safeguards.
According to an investigation published by the newspaper Perú21 in early 2025, high-level sources within the Peruvian government claimed that Cuban counterintelligence agents were collaborating in the protection of Peruvian politician Vladimir Cerrón, a fugitive since October 2023 after he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for corruption related to the irregular construction of an airfield.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea told the press that, if the involvement of foreign agents in Cerrón’s escape were confirmed, Peru could escalate the diplomatic conflict to the point of severing relations with Cuba. The report indicated that the police identified Cuban citizens who met with members of the Perú Libre party to coordinate actions related to Cerrón; the possible involvement of Peruvian police officers as collaborators is also being investigated. Authorities say they came close to arresting him in January 2025, when a technical error temporarily revealed his whereabouts in an exclusive area south of Lima, information that matched data that the Police attributed to previously identified Cuban agents.
The departure of the Cuban ambassador from Lima comes at a time of redefinition of Peruvian foreign policy, also strained by the diplomatic clash with Mexico.
In Havana, the Foreign Ministry has not responded to Zamora’s dismissal or the accusations of espionage. There are also no reports in the official press or personal statements from the ambassador so far—a silence that, in the regime’s ritual, amounts to tacit confirmation.
The departure of the Cuban ambassador from Lima comes at a time of redefinition in Peruvian foreign policy, which is also strained by the diplomatic clash with Mexico. The document published by the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that they analyzed the Mexican government’s request to grant safe passage to Betssy Chávez—a former minister and former president of the Council of Ministers during the Castillo administration, currently being prosecuted for rebellion and conspiracy following the attempted self-coup—who sought asylum in the Mexican embassy.
Following internal consultations and consultations with international experts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has concluded that, in recent years, some countries have misused the 1954 Caracas Convention, granting asylum to individuals prosecuted for common crimes rather than for political persecution. Peru believes this practice undermines the purpose of asylum and rejects its use as a means of evading justice. Therefore, it will initiate a diplomatic process within the Organization of American States (OAS) to propose amendments to the Convention, with the aim of preventing abuses and ensuring respect for the rule of law in the region.
Peru’s relationship with the political axis that includes Mexico, Cuba, and other allies of so-called Latin American progressivism has entered a zone of open friction. The dismissal of the Cuban ambassador reinforced the perception that Peru is realigning its priorities, distancing itself from governments close to Havana and from the old diplomatic framework that, in previous decades, allowed the island to operate with few political checks and balances in the Andean countries. The crisis with Mexico and Zamora’s departure, viewed together, illustrate a diplomatic shift in which Lima has decided to demonstrate that it will not tolerate either automatic protections or ideological activism shielded by diplomatic immunities.
See also: Peruvian Fugitive Vladimir Cerron Escaped to Cuba With the Complicity of Havana
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.