Background

Purús: a province cut off

Purús is one of the most isolated provinces in Peru. It sits in the Ucayali region, deep in the Amazon on the border with Brazil, and it has no road connection to the rest of the country. River travel to the regional capital, Pucallpa, can take weeks. For the few thousand people who live there, most of them from the Huni Kuin (Cashinahua), Sharanahua, Mastanahua, Amahuaca and Yine peoples, the airstrip at Puerto Esperanza is not a convenience. It is the only practical link to the outside: to hospitals, to courts, to markets, to the rest of Peru.

That lifeline has been failing.

In July 2024, the expansion of the Puerto Esperanza hospital was suspended with no equipment installed. That same month, reporting warned that the airstrip was in critical condition and that humanitarian flights were at risk. By July 2025, the civic flights operated by the Ministry of Defense had been cancelled for lack of budget. In October 2025, more than 200 residents of Purús were reported stranded in Pucallpa for roughly 75 days, unable to get home. In late December 2025, flooding from the Curanja river destroyed crops in at least fifteen communities, deepening an already fragile supply situation.

In early May 2026, the Peruvian Air Force told the Congressional National Defense Commission that civic flights to Puerto Esperanza remained suspended due to the runway's condition. A few days later, indigenous leaders from Purús traveled to Lima to denounce state abandonment and demand answers. The Ombudsman's Ucayali office formally intervened, noting that no written protocol exists to govern the allocation of seats on civic flights, and convoked a technical meeting to draft one.

Who decides who flies is not clear. The aerodrome's operation depends on CORPAC and the Ministry of Transport (MTC). The Air Force operates military and humanitarian flights. Coordination involves the Provincial Municipality of Purús, the Regional Government of Ucayali, the Health and Education sectors, indigenous organizations, and the Office of the Prime Minister (PCM). In practice, communities report that access to flights depends on lists, informal coordination and institutional relationships, not on a transparent, published mechanism.

The isolation has concrete consequences. Medical evacuations are delayed. Fuel runs short, which affects both Puerto Esperanza's power generation and the boat movement on which communities depend. Food and transport prices rise. The 2026 school year was able to start thanks to a March airlift by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Defense that brought roughly 200 teachers to 41 schools (about 1,300 students), but its continuity depends on the same air link that is now broken.

On May 22, 2026, a multisectoral meeting led by the PCM, with the MTC (Deputy Transport Minister Juan Haro), the Ministry of Finance, the Foreign Ministry, CORPAC, Electro Ucayali, FECONAPU and the Regional Government of Ucayali, agreed on an arrangement for the Regional Government to carry out immediate runway maintenance for approximately 300,000 soles (about USD 81,000), enabling Spartan aircraft to land and transport materials for a subsequent intervention estimated at 10 million soles (about USD 2.7 million). CORPAC is also evaluating an integral IOARR project at approximately 160 million soles (about USD 43 million) for full pavement rehabilitation. In parallel, the Foreign Ministry reported that the Brazilian government, through Itamaraty, has expressed willingness to support fuel supply from Brazil to guarantee electrical service in the province. These are commitments, not deliveries.

The communities of Purús are represented by their own indigenous organizations, among them FECONAPU, ORAU and AIDESEP, which have documented and denounced the crisis. This is an independent record that gathers a dated timeline and press coverage, updated as the situation develops, with no editorial affiliation to any organization.

Sources for every entry are cited on the timeline. This is a living document and will be updated.