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.