On Tuesday, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced that it will work with the Peruvian government to bring the country into its Visa Waiver Program.

On Feb. 28, 2014, Chile became the 38th country to become a part of VWP. According to Alan Bersin, acting assistant secretary for the DHS' Office of Policy, many Latin American countries have "expressed interest" in becoming part of the program since then.

"Among these countries is Peru, which DHS has been working with extensively, both bilaterally and through multilateral organizations, to reaffirm our shared interest in facilitating the flow of people and goods between our two countries while protecting our citizens from the threats posed by terrorism and transnational crime," Bersin wrote via the DHS blog.

Harold Forsyth, Peru's ambassador to the United States, called the announcement "the birth of a process," which will take a while to see completion and began "a year ago."

"This is going to take time," he explained to Efe. "I figure that we will be able to see concrete results in about three years, but taking into account that the U.S. has demanded visas of Peru since ... 1923, a wait of three years will not be much."

According to Fox News Latino, the United States turns down about 16 percent of visa requests that come from Peru. Forsyth says this number will need to go down "noticeably." Bersin points out, however, that there is "complexity" and "many requirements" regarding participation in VWP.

"... DHS and the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Relations intend to consult closely and to take the necessary steps that would enable Peru to meet the requirements for VWP designation," Bersin continued.

Bersin spoke with the Group of Latin American Ambassadors in Washington on Monday to discuss the move, which will hopefully make travel and trade easier.

"Everything is due to President Ollanta Humala and to his commitment to move forward on this issue to the benefit of our country," Forsyth said. "He gave clear instructions for mobilizing on this issue, and the way he dealt with the matter in his meeting with President Obama here in the White House on June 12, 2013 was admirable."
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