Callao Naval Base | |
Type: | Naval base, prison |
Ownership: | Peruvian State |
Operator: | National Penitentiary Institute, Peruvian Navy |
Built: | s |
Current Commander: | V.A. Jorge Millones Gonzales |
Callao Naval Base (Spanish; Castilian: Base Naval del Callao) is the main naval base of the Peruvian Navy. Located north of the main port of Callao, it is also a high-security prison, where members of terrorist groups such as the Shining Path and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) are located. The base hosts a dockyard and naval aviation base, as well as the Naval Medical Center, which contains the U.S. Navy's Naval Medical Research Unit Six.[1]
A project to modernise the base started in the northern part of the facility on June 21, 2023.[1]
The naval base was first built in the 1930s as a levee and a naval arsenal.[2] In 1992, then presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos proposed the construction of a penitentiary centre in the base, where he himself was confined after he was extradited from Venezuela in June 2001.[3]