The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency on Monday in the provinces of Lima and Callao to stem a rise in crime, in a move that follows the killing of a popular musician over the weekend.
President Dina Boluarte also floated the possibility of extending the use of the death penalty in Peru to address the country’s security problems.
The declaration and Boluarte’s statements came after Paul Hambert Flores García, singer of the cumbia group Armonia 10, was shot dead while traveling with his bandmates in their bus.
Peru’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that police are treating the shooting as a deliberate attack.
On Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior said it had deployed several units of the Peruvian National Police to identify and capture those responsible for the shooting, which they have classified as a deliberate attack.
“To these damned murderers, I say that I am seriously considering the death penalty,” Boluarte said Monday at an event to mark the start of the 2025 school year.
It was the latest instance in which the president has publicly thrown her support behind extending the use of the death penalty. Previously she did so in December 2024, following the murder of a girl.
Peru’s death penalty is currently used only for crimes of treason in cases of war and terrorism, according to the Constitution. If it were to be extended to include other crimes, Peru’s Constitution and the Penal Code would need to be reformed. To move forward with that, Peru would also have to disassociate itself from the international Pact of San José, which establishes limits on the death penalty.
Furthermore, the president would need to secure the necessary votes from legislators, which she has been unable to obtain for some of her other initiatives.
Following Boluarte’s statements, the Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency in Lima and Callao for 30 days, authorizing the deployment of Peru’s Armed Forces to support the National Police.
Peru is experiencing a serious security crisis. Several public schools reported days ago that they were being extorted by criminals, prompting them to propose virtual classes, according to state television station TV Perú.
In September 2024, transportation unions, which also reported being extorted by criminals, carried out a workers strike as a warning to the Boluarte government and marched toward Congress. At that time, a state of emergency was also declared in several parts of the country.