Altiplano y del Pacífico

The Departmental Stage, or Departmental Leagues, constitutes a phase of the qualification system of the Copa Perú. Its purpose is to determine, through competitions organized within each department, the teams that represent their respective jurisdictions in the next stage of the competition, initially the Regional Stage.

The first edition of the Copa Perú began in 1966, with the District and Provincial stages. The first Departmental Leagues were subsequently played between February and March 1967, followed by the Regional Stage during April and May, and finally by the Final Stage, or Finalísima, held in May 1967. The Finalísima concluded on May 28, 1967, with Alfonso Ugarte de Chiclín becoming the first Copa Perú champion.

Although the first Departmental competitions were actually played during 1967, they are considered part of the 1966 edition, as they corresponded to the qualification process that had begun the previous year. Therefore, for historical purposes, the first edition of the Departmental Stage may be identified as 1966–67, while the stage itself was effectively played in 1967.

Subsequently, beginning in 1993, the calendar of the different stages of the competition was regularized so that the process would take place primarily within a single calendar year. The competition began with the District Stage during the first months of the year and continued successively through the Provincial, Departmental, and Regional stages, before culminating in the Final Stage, which was usually played toward the final months of the year or, in some cases, in January of the following year.