Troops on the streets of Lima as Peru's government calls state of emergency to tackle crime wave

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Commuters and residents in Lima were facing new security measures on Tuesday after Peru ’s government declared a state of emergency in the capital to combat growing crime rates that have prompted some lawmakers to seek the removal of the interior minister.

National police director Victor Sanabria announced there would be an increase in patrols at train stations and bus stations where tens of thousands of commuters gather each morning. Peru’s military on Monday announced it would deploy 1,000 soldiers in Lima to patrol key areas such as train stations, and support local police.

Some residents of the city of eight million people said they still felt unsafe, while local media reports said there was little sign of extra security at transport stations during the morning.

“We’ve been abandoned and left to fend for ourselves” said local resident Pedro Quispe, 48, as he waited for a bus that would take him to the city center. “If you get on a bus you can get shot, if you go to work, you can get asked for extortion payments” he said.

Peru’s government declared the state of emergency on Monday as a group of legislators prepared a vote of no confidence against Interior Minister Juan José Santivañez, who has been accused of failing to stem growing levels of crime.

The motion in the national assembly followed a wave of violent crime over the weekend, including the murder on Sunday of Paul Flores, a popular singer killed during a late night attack on his band's bus. In a separate incident, an object exploded at a restaurant in the capital on Saturday injuring at least 11 people.

The state of emergency is expected to last for 30 days and will enable the government to suspend some civil liberties, including the right of assembly. The decree also enables police to search homes without warrants and arrest citizens without orders from judges. A similar measure was implemented from September to December.

“We are in a situation where there is exponential growth of illegal economies” such as the drug trade, “and in which there is a growing number of international criminal groups” operating in the country, said former Interior Minister Ruben Vargas.

Jorge Zapata, president of the National Confederation of Private Businesses, a powerful trade group, told local radio station RPP that many small business owners in Lima have been forced to make extortion payments to criminal groups.

There were 2,057 murders in Peru in 2024, compared with 674 in 2017, according to government statistics. Some analysts say Peru could soon experience the high rates of crime that are seen in neighboring Ecuador.

According to Peru’s attorney general’s office, there were 22,800 extortion complaints filed by citizens last year, four times as many as in 2017.

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