Perus

The state of emergency lifts constitutional rights, including the right to protest, amid popular unrest over the rise in extortion and killings.

Peru’s Interim President Jose Jeri has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Lima, to stem a wave of protests that contributed to the recent downfall of his predecessor.

In a televised message on Tuesday, Jeri said the emergency in the city would last 30 days.

“Wars are won with actions, not words,” the president said, adding that he is planning a new approach to fighting crime that he described as going “from defence to offence”.

Under the state of emergency, the government can send the army to patrol the streets and restrict freedom of assembly and other rights.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said the announcement comes after six days of uncertainty over whether the interim government would push ahead.

In the decree formally declaring the emergency, the government did not mention how it intended to gather critically needed intelligence to curb extortion cases, which are estimated at 18,000 this year, up 30 percent from last year, Sanchez said.

The rise in extortions has also led to an increase in killings in recent years. Between January and September, police authorities reported 1,690 homicides, compared with 1,502 during the same period of 2024.

“The state of emergency will lift constitutional rights and people will not be able to protest,” Sanchez said.

Dina Boluarte was removed as president by Peru’s Congress on October 10 after an impeachment during which lawmakers said she had been unable to tackle the crime wave. Jeri, the parliament speaker, replaced her immediately and will serve as interim president until July next year.

Peru has been roiled by weeks of antigovernment protests over corruption and organised crime led by Gen-Z activists.

On Thursday, protests to demand Jeri’s resignation turned violent. One person was killed and about 100 were injured, including police officers and some journalists.

Jeri has said he will not resign.

Earlier, Boluarte had declared a 30-day state of emergency in March following the murder of a famous musician, but the move did little to reduce crime.

Paul Flores, a well-known cumbia singer, was killed when assailants attacked the bus he was travelling on in an apparent attempt to extort the operator.

State of emergency to be declared in capital as protests that led to last week’s ouster of former president intensify.

Peru’s new president, Jose Jeri, is refusing to resign amid Gen Z antigovernment protests, inflamed by the death of a popular rapper, as crime grips the nation.

The government said late on Thursday that a state of emergency would be declared in the capital, Lima, as the prosecutor’s office announced it was investigating the previous day’s killing of 32-year-old protester and hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruiz in a mass demonstration.

Peru’s police chief, General Oscar Arriola, said that Luis Magallanes, a member of the force, was believed to have fired the bullet and had subsequently been detained and dismissed from his job. Arriola added that Magallanes was being treated in hospital after being physically assaulted.

Ruiz was the first person to die in the protests, which began a month ago with calls for better pensions and wages for young people and later became a lightning rod for broader frustrations with crime and corruption, culminating in the ouster of former President Dina Boluarte last week.

On Wednesday, thousands massed around the country, with hundreds clashing with police outside Congress in Lima, as they called on recently appointed Jeri, the seventh president in less than a decade, to resign.

“My responsibility is to maintain the stability of the country; that is my responsibility and my commitment,” Jeri told the local media after visiting Peru’s parliament, where he said he would request powers to combat crime.

Jeri expressed regret over Ruiz’s death in a post on X, saying the death would be “objectively” investigated. He blamed violence on “delinquents who infiltrated a peaceful demonstration to sow chaos”.

“The full force of the law will be on them,” he wrote.

Reporting from Lima, Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez said that Ruiz’s death had “added another layer to the ongoing political crisis” in the country and had “angered even more Peruvians who are frustrated with the corruption, with the insecurity in the country”.

“He was peacefully hanging out with his friends. Unfortunately, the bullet hit his chest. We want justice for him,” activist Milagros Samillan told Al Jazeera.

The prosecutor’s office wrote on X that it had ordered the removal of Ruíz’s body from a Lima hospital and the “collection of audiovisual and ballistic evidence in the area where the incident occurred, in the context of serious human rights violations”.

Newly appointed interior minister, Vicente Tiburcio, said that 89 police and 22 civilians had been injured during Wednesday’s protest and 11 people were detained.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Unlike eight previous attempts to remove the president, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the move.

Peru’s Congress has voted to remove President Dina Boluarte, among the world’s most unpopular leaders, in a late-night session called hours after political parties from across the spectrum called for her impeachment, as the nation fights an intensive crime wave.

Politicians voted late Thursday into Friday to debate her removal from office on grounds of “moral incapacity” and summoned her to defend herself before Congress an hour later.

The stunning turn of events came just hours after a shooting at a concert in the capital inflamed anger over crime roiling the South American nation.

Legislators had voted to accept four requests for a vote to remove Boluarte from office over what they said was her government’s inability to stem crime. They exceeded the minimum 56 votes required for each request, setting up a debate and impeachment trial in the 130-member unicameral Congress.

They then requested that Boluarte come before them on Thursday shortly before midnight to defend herself, but when she did not appear, they immediately voted to oust her. In short order, 124 lawmakers voted just past midnight to impeach Boluarte.

Unlike eight previous attempts to remove her, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the latest requests.

Sept. 20 (UPI) — The election of Pope Leo XIV in carried special meaning for Peru, particularly for the city of Chiclayo in the Lambayeque region, where the then-priest Robert Francis Prevost spent decades as a missionary and nearly 10 years as bishop.

Although Prevost was born in Chicago, he became a Peruvian citizen in 2015 when he was named bishop of what he called his “beloved diocese of Chiclayo,” a phrase he delivered in Spanish in his first words to the world after being elected pope.

The impact of his election has been not only spiritual, but also economic, with a significant boost to tourism in the city.

Lambayeque Gov. Jorge Pérez said Thursday that the region recorded an additional $42 million in revenue from tourism tied to the pope’s history in the area.

“No marketing agency, not even the most powerful in the world, could have achieved what Pope Leo has accomplished,” Pérez said in a television interview with CanalB.

Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism officially launched the “Path of Pope Leo XIV” tourist route in late July, highlighting the Peruvian cities in which the pontiff carried out his missionary and pastoral work.

“This tourist route is not just an itinerary of more than 35 attractions in the regions of Lambayeque, La Libertad, Piura and Callao. It is a spiritual path and an invitation to rediscover who we are, where we come from and what unites us as Peruvians,” the ministry said.

As part of its plan to promote the route, the Peruvian government released a promotional video titled The Route of Leo, aimed at encouraging both domestic and international tourists to visit the destinations.

The official route includes historic churches, landmark museums and natural sites, such as the Santa María Cathedral in Chiclayo, the Pómac Forest Historic Sanctuary, the adobe pyramids of Túcume, the ruins of the former San Agustín Convent in Zaña, the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum and the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve.

This is complemented by the rich cuisine of northern Peru, known for its diverse flavors and ancestral traditions, with dishes that blend seafood, agriculture and the pre-Hispanic heritage of the Mochica and Chimú cultures.

Some of the region’s most famous dishes include arroz con pato (rice with duck), cabrito a la norteña (northern-style goat and one of Pope Leo XIV’s favorites), stingray omelet and black clam ceviche.

For the first stage of the route, which required coordination across four regions and 20 municipalities, the Peruvian government allocated $151 million.

The Ministry of Culture also announced a second stage of the project, with $2.5 million set aside to upgrade the Sicán National Museum and to reinforce the preservation of Chiclayo’s Cathedral and La Verónica Chapel.

In addition, plans are underway to expand the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum, one of Peru’s most important archaeological museums, which is known for its historical value, the preservation of its artifacts and the quality of its exhibits.

The museum houses the funerary treasures of the Lord of Sipán, a Moche ruler from the third century A.D., which were discovered in 1987 at Huaca Rajada near Chiclayo.

The discovery is considered one of the most significant in the Americas because it was the first intact royal Moche tomb found without looting, offering researchers a detailed view of the hierarchy and splendor of that culture.

Boluarte, Peru’s first female president, has faced investigations into protest-related deaths and alleged illicit enrichment.

The Constitutional Court of Peru has paused investigations into Dina Boluarte until her term ends in 2026, citing her position as the country’s sitting president.

On Tuesday, the court suspended probes led by the public prosecutor’s office that looked into alleged misconduct under Boluarte.

“The suspended investigations will continue after the end of the presidential term,” the ruling explained.

One of the most significant probes had to do with Boluarte’s response to the protests that erupted in Peru in December 2022, after the embattled president at the time, Pedro Castillo, attempted to dissolve Congress.

Instead, Castillo was impeached, removed from office and imprisoned, with critics calling his actions an attempted coup d’etat.

His removal, in turn, prompted months of intense public backlash: Thousands of protesters blocked roads and led marches in support of the left-wing leader.

Boluarte, who took over the presidency, declared a state of emergency in response, and the subsequent clashes between the police and protesters killed more than 60 people and left hundreds injured.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that, in certain parts of the country, “the disproportionate, indiscriminate, and lethal use of force was a major element of the State response to the protests”.

It noted that “a significant number of victims were not even involved in the protests”.

In January 2023, Attorney General Patricia Benavides launched a probe into the actions of Boluarte and her ministers. By November of that year, Benavides had filed a constitutional complaint, accusing Boluarte of causing death and injury to protesters.

The public prosecutor’s office later set aside part of the investigation, which delved into whether Boluarte’s actions amounted to “genocide”.

Boluarte has denied any wrongdoing and instead called the protest probe a distraction from the attorney general’s own public scandals.

But Boluarte has continued to face probes into other aspects of her presidency.

Police in 2024 raided her home and the presidential palace as part of the “Rolex case”, an investigation prompted by media reports that Boluarte owned multiple luxury watches and high-end jewellery that were beyond her means to purchase. Critics have accused her of seeking illicit enrichment.

Boluarte, however, said her hands were “clean”, and Congress denied motions to impeach her over the “Rolex case”.

Another investigation looked into her absence from office in 2023, when Boluarte said she had to undergo a “necessary and essential” medical procedure on her nose — though critics have said it was a cosmetic procedure.

Her absence, they argue, was therefore a dereliction of duty, done without notifying Congress. In that case, too, Boluarte has denied the charges.

Peru has weathered much instability in its government: Boluarte is the sixth president in seven years, and virtually all of Peru’s presidents have faced criminal investigations, if not convictions, in the last quarter century.

Boluarte, however, had petitioned the Constitutional Court to stop the investigations until her term is over.

She is set to exit her office on July 28, 2026, after calling for a new general election in March. She has faced public pressure to resign since taking over for Castillo in December 2022.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has signed into law a controversial piece of legislation that would shield the military, police and other government-sanctioned forces from prosecution for human rights abuses committed during the country’s decades-long internal conflict.

On Wednesday, Boluarte held a signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Lima, where she defended the amnesty law as a means of honouring the sacrifices made by government forces.

“This is a historic day for our country,” she said. “It brings justice and honour to those who stood up to terrorism.”

But human rights groups and international observers have condemned the bill as a violation of international law — not to mention a denial of justice for the thousands of survivors who lived through the conflict.

From 1980 to 2000, Peru experienced a bloody conflict that pitted government forces against left-wing rebel groups like the Shining Path.

Both sides, however, committed massacres, kidnappings and assaults on unarmed civilians, with the death toll from the conflict climbing as high as 70,000 people.

Up until present, survivors and family members of the deceased have continued to fight for accountability.

An estimated 600 investigations are currently under way, and 156 convictions have been achieved, according to the National Human Rights Coordinator, a coalition of Peruvian human rights organisations.

Critics fear those ongoing probes could be scuttled under the wide-ranging protections offered by the new amnesty law, which stands to benefit soldiers, police officers and members of self-defence committees who face legal proceedings for which no final verdict has been rendered.

The legislation also offers “humanitarian” amnesty for those convicted over the age of 70.

Peru, however, falls under the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ordered the country’s government to “immediately suspend the processing” of the law on July 24.

The court ruled against past amnesty laws in Peru. In cases of severe human rights violations, it ruled that there can be no sweeping amnesty nor age limits for prosecution.

In 1995, for instance, Peru passed a separate amnesty law that would have prevented the prosecution of security forces for human rights abuses between 1980 and that year. But it was greeted with widespread condemnation, including from United Nations experts, and it was eventually repealed.

In the case of the current amnesty law, nine UN experts issued a joint letter in July condemning its passage as a “clear breach of [Peru’s] obligations under international law”.

But at Wednesday’s signing ceremony, President Boluarte reiterated her position that such international criticism was a violation of her country’s sovereignty and that she would not adhere to the Inter-American Court’s decision.

“Peru is honouring its defenders and firmly rejecting any internal or external interference,” Boluarte said.

“We cannot allow history to be distorted, for perpetrators to pretend to be victims, and for the true defenders of the homeland to be branded as enemies of the nation they swore to protect.”

Peru’s armed forces, however, have been implicated in a wide range of human rights abuses. Just last year, 10 soldiers were convicted of carrying out the systematic rape of Indigenous and rural women and girls.

Drawing from Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the human rights group Amnesty International estimates that the country’s armed forces and police were responsible for 37 percent of the deaths and disappearances that happened during the conflict.

They were also credited with carrying out 75 percent of the reported instances of torture and 83 percent of sexual violence cases.

Francisco Ochoa, a victims’ advocate, spoke to Al Jazeera last month about his experiences surviving the 1985 Accomarca massacre as a 14-year-old teenager.

He had been in the corn fields preparing to sow seeds when soldiers arrived and rounded up the residents of his small Andean village.

Despite having no evidence linking the villagers to rebel groups, the soldiers locked many of them in their huts, fired into the structures and set them ablaze.

As many as 62 people were killed, including Ochoa’s mother, eight-year-old brother and six-year-old sister.

“The first thing I remember from that day is the smell when we arrived,” Ochoa, now 54, told journalist Claudia Rebaza. “It smelled like smouldering flesh, and there was no one around.”

When asked how he and other survivors felt about the amnesty law, Ochoa responded, “Outraged and betrayed”.

President Dina Boluarte has blasted the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for its opposition to a recently passed bill that would grant amnesty to soldiers, police officers and other security personnel involved in Peru’s internal conflict from 1985 to 2000.

On Thursday, Boluarte asserted that the international court had overstepped its authority by seeking the law’s suspension.

“We are not anyone’s colony,” she said, posting a snippet of her speech to social media.

“And we will not allow the intervention of the Inter-American Court that intends to suspend a bill that seeks justice for members of our armed forces, our National Police and the self-defence committees that fought, risking their lives, against the insanity of terrorism.”

Since passing Peru’s Congress in July, the amnesty law has been awaiting Boluarte’s approval. She can either sign it into law, allow it to take effect automatically or send it back to Congress for revisions.

But the bill has prompted international outcry, not least because it is seen to shield security forces from accountability for the atrocities that unfolded during Peru’s war.

The legislation would also offer “humanitarian” amnesty to perpetrators over age 70 who have been convicted of wartime crimes.

Some 70,000 people were killed in the internal conflict, the majority of them from rural and Indigenous communities.

Soldiers and police officers were ostensibly tasked with combatting armed uprisings from rebel groups like the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. But the conflict became infamous for its human rights abuses and massacres of civilians with no ties to any rebel group.

Francisco Ochoa was 14 years old when residents in his Andean village, Accomarca, were slaughtered by soldiers. He told Al Jazeera earlier this week that he and other survivors felt “outraged and betrayed” by the new amnesty law.

International organisations have likewise denounced the law as a step backwards for Peruvian society.

Nine human rights experts with the United Nations signed a statement on July 17 expressing “alarm” at the bill’s passage through Congress. They called on the government of Peru to veto the bill.

“The proposed legislation would prevent the criminal prosecution and condemnation of individuals who committed gross human rights violations during Peru’s internal armed conflict,” they said.

“It would put the State in clear breach of its obligations under international law.”

A week later, on July 24, the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Nancy Hernandez Lopez, ordered Peru to “immediately suspend the processing” of the bill. She ruled that the legislation violated previous rulings against such amnesty laws in the country.

“If it is not suspended, the competent authorities refrain from enforcing this law,” she said.

She noted that a session would be convened with survivors, Peruvian officials and members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

In previous rulings, the Inter-American Court has found that amnesty laws and statutes of limitations are unlawful in the case of serious human rights violations like forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

It also declared that age is not a disqualifying factor for suspects accused of grave human rights abuses. Such exemptions, the court said, are only acceptable under international law for lesser or nonviolent offences.

The National Human Rights Coordinator, a coalition of humanitarian groups in Peru, estimates that the country’s latest amnesty law could overturn 156 convictions and disrupt more than 600 ongoing investigations.

A previous amnesty law implemented in 1995, under then-President Alberto Fujimori, was later repealed.

Still, President Boluarte on Thursday sought to frame her government’s actions as in line with international human rights standards.

“We are defenders of human rights, of citizens,” she wrote on social media, while emphasising that her government was “free”, “sovereign” and “autonomous”, apparent jabs at the Inter-American Court’s decision.

July 3 (UPI) — The government of President Dina Boluarte has extended Peru’s small-scale mining formalization program through December, even as doubts persist more than a decade after its launch and experts warn that criminal organizations have exploited the system.

According to official figures from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, just 2,108 of the 86,000 miners enrolled in the Integral Registry for Mining Formalization, or REINFO, had completed the process as of November 2024 — a rate of only 2.4%.

REINFO was launched as part of a government effort to contain the unchecked growth of informal and illegal mining. It gave registered miners a deadline to submit documents, meet environmental and labor standards and transition to legal operations. But after four extensions, the process has failed to deliver lasting results.

Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Montero said the situation could improve in the coming months. He noted that another 5% of registered miners are close to completing the formalization process, and added that the government aims to mediate agreements between concession holders and roughly 15,000 small-scale miners who are working informally on those sites.

But experts say repeated deadline extensions have turned the program into a legal gray area that criminal groups exploit.

“We’re talking about a failed system by every measure,” Mónica Muñoz-Nájar, an economist with the Red de Estudios para el Desarrollo, said in an interview with RPP. She pointed to the low rate of formalization and the expansion of informal mining.

“Forty-four percent of the gold Peru exports comes from illegal mining, which has become more profitable than drug trafficking. It’s estimated that illegal mining generates $12 billion a year,” she said.

One of the strongest criticisms of REINFO comes from the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy. Its president, Julia Torreblanca, said the registry has become a “shield for illegality” and that its indiscriminate extensions distort the market by protecting individuals who have no intention of following the law or meeting formalization requirements.

A growing concern, however, is the infiltration of organized crime into informal mining zones operating under REINFO’s protection. Organizations such as the Observatory of Illegal Mining and advocacy group DAR have warned that criminal networks use the registry to operate unregulated mining fronts, traffic illegal gold, transport chemical supplies and even facilitate human trafficking and forced labor.

These warnings align with reports from the National Police, who have identified criminal networks in regions including Madre de Dios, Puno and La Libertad. Authorities say these groups use informal mining concessions to conceal a range of illegal activities, including fuel smuggling, arms trafficking and the export of gold to international markets.

In early May, police reported the kidnapping and murder of 13 private security guards employed by a contractor linked to the Poderosa mining company in the Pataz region. Authorities said the bodies showed signs of torture and were found bound and unclothed — a sign of the extreme violence used by criminal gangs tied to illegal mining.

The case marked a critical moment in Peru, underscoring the violence and criminal networks that operate alongside illegal mining in the Andes and the direct threat they pose to people working in the region.

A recent report from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru warns that illegal mining is one of the most destructive activities environmentally, socially and economically.

It found that in regions like Madre de Dios, up to 50,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed. The state collected about $12,000 in taxes, compared with an estimated $565 million in extracted gold. Estimated tax evasion ranges from $85 million to $168 million.