You might say Mario Eusebio is the fisherman who got away.
Mr. Eusebio is the president of the 322-member Union of Artisanal Fishers of the Port of Chancay on Peru’s Pacific coast. I came across the engaging leader of Chancay’s threatened fishing industry on an April reporting trip to Peru for the June 2 Monitor Weekly cover story on President Donald Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine.
The once-sleepy (and still picturesque) Chancay fishing village and its seasonally hopping beaches were a focal point of my reporting because it is here that China, through its state-owned Cosco Shipping Corp., has built a mega maritime port to serve the country’s rapidly growing trade with South America.
As a symbol of China’s expanding foothold across Latin America – and as an emerging target of the Trump administration’s portrayal of China as this era’s challenge to U.S. superiority in the Western Hemisphere – Chancay needed to be part of the story.
In Lima, Peru’s capital, I interviewed academic experts on China’s role in Latin America, as well as diplomats and officials versed in the history and evolution of the region’s relations with the United States and with China.
But in Chancay, I spoke with residents affected by the megaport, whose cranes now loom over the town’s quaint hillside homes and bobbing fishing boats. We call these contributors to our stories the “man on the street,” the vox pop – sometimes even the “real people.”
It was my pursuit of this part of the story that took me to Mr. Eusebio.
“I do not know a lot about the geopolitics of this [port] project, but what I do know is that since construction began and with all the blasting at sea for the docks, our fishing has suffered,” he said. Gesturing toward a nearby beach with a ropy forearm befitting a seasoned fisherman, he added, “Cosco told us this would end up beautiful, with pretty beaches and nice walking paths. But you see what we have.” Indeed, the eroded beach is not particularly inviting, and there are no promenades.
I spoke with another Chancay fisherman, Antonio Herrera, who told me that the port has chased fish away and made his fishing outings longer and more dangerous. “What used to take me three hours to catch now takes three days, and I must go much farther out,” he said.
Both men had compelling stories, their observations helping to give the story a texture it otherwise wouldn’t have. I loved meeting them. But in the end, neither one figures in the piece.
We journalists often worry that we won’t get the sources we need for a story. That is especially true when we are reporting in a foreign country or in a place where we have no established connections. But then the sources almost always come through. And that is because, if you listen, just about everyone out there has a story to tell.
As it turned out, the Monroe Doctrine 2.0 piece required such a mix of history and policy and geopolitics that there wasn’t room for everybody. That is why Mr. Eusebio got away.
That does not mean he did not contribute to the story.
This column first appeared in the June 2, 2025, issue of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly. Subscribe today to receive future issues of the Monitor Weekly magazine delivered to your home.
