Amidst a wave of violence and extortion threatening stability, Peruvian democracy is in danger. The increasing incidence of these acts has fueled the proliferation of radical discourses, posing a significant challenge to the integrity of the democratic system in the country.

By Karla Velezmoro

Journalist FOROS HUMANOS

Lying on a stretcher in a clinic, Jaime Villanueva, advisor to the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office, was notified of the judicial resolution that ordered his preliminary detention to be investigated for the crime of influence peddling.by allegedly agreeing in the Congressional votes for the election of Josué Gutiérrez as Ombudsman, the disqualification of the supreme prosecutor Zoraida Ávalos and the attempted removal of the National Board of Justice (JNJ). It was useless for him to be hospitalized for lower back pain, Villanueva was arrested and taken to the Lima Prefecture. Once again Peru was immersed in a new political crisis.

Fragile institutional framework

Corruption thus displaced citizen insecurity from the front pages. At least for these days when we no longer talk only about that but also about the complaint that—as a reaction—immediately presented the Prosecutor of the Nation against President Dina Boluarte and her president of the Council of Ministers, among others, for the deaths that occurred during the protests of December 2022 and January 2023.

But there is even more: a resolution from the Constitutional Court that, According to the defense of former President Alberto Fujimori, he could be released, a ruling that has generated divided opinions.

And in Peru, the institutional framework is fragile. In the last five years, six presidents have governed the country: Pedro Pablo Kukzynski, Martín Vizcarra, Manuel Merino, Francisco Sagasti, Pedro Castillo and Dina Boluarte, current head of state and the first woman to hold this position.

Organized crime challenges emergency measures in Peru.

In a recent CPI survey, the figures reveal that 84% of the population disapproves of Boluarte’s management and 90% of the Congress of the Republic. Under this political panorama, the current government intends to deal with organized crime that is gaining more ground every day and that is not intimidated by emergency measures, such as declarations of a state of emergency, in order to achieve its objective: collecting quotas.

“We must reinforce the Police with training, with goods and services. We are telling them to reinforce their intelligence units so that they dismantle these gangs, whether Peruvian or foreign, because the fight for territories is what is causing all this problem,” said Alberto Huertas, Deputy Ombudsman.

Anti-crime plan in crisis

However, so far in this government there are already four holders in the Ministry of the Interior, which makes it difficult to effectively combat common and organized crime. On November 15, the Congress of the Republic censured the Minister of the Interior, General Vicente Romero, considering “a manifest inability of leadership and suitability» for the exercise of the position.» And Parliament considered that there are no results from the plan that the government has implemented to combat common crime and organized crime.

The Ombudsman’s Office is of the same opinion, which, a month after the state of emergency was declared in some districts, ruled that the measure was insufficient. “Not only is the implementation of strategies aimed at controlling, repressing and punishing crime, such as increasing penalties, relevant; but, in addition, it is essential to commit to efficient public policies in the medium and long term, addressing the factors and causes that favor violence and crime in the country,” he stated in his statement.

Like Bukele…

If in El Salvador there is a “Bukele Plan”, here in Peru we have the “Boluarte Plan”. And given the voices that suggested implementing the Bukele Plan in Peru, the current government could not think of a better idea than to name its security plan with the president’s last name.

“Here there will not be a Bukele plan, there will be a Boluarte Plan, doing what other governments have done best. Mr. Bukele has done two things, that the police get on the buses to take care of the citizens and programs to promote sports in areas where they have recovered from crime,» said the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola before the Congress of the Republic. Later, he would warn that said planIt had been prepared “with the Constitution in hand” in order to emphasize that the proposal guarantees respect for human rights.

The debate on a possible implementation of the Bukele Plan in Peru reached such a level that days before Otárola’s announcement, the Salvadoran president himself published a tweet in which he posted a survey that, finally, showed that 93% of Those who participated in the survey agreed with the implementation of that plan.

¿“Plan Bukele” en Perú?

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 26, 2023

And in Peru, 40% of citizens consider that crime and lack of security is the most important problem they face, according to the Institute of Statistics and Informatics.

Democracy in danger: strong-handed tactics and controversies

These demands for a solution and concern about the advance of crime motivated a group of mayors to meet and form agreements with their counterparts in El Salvador, such as the representative of the mayor of the most important port in Peru, El Callao.

This clamor by Peruvians to stop crime promotes voices, especially from local governments, to adopt measures that simulate a hand effect.ra. A law on self-defense has already been approved that has raised alarm bells. The Institute of Democracy and Human Rights (Idehpucp) of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru has described the rule as infectious and dangerous, just like the proposal of the Lima municipality that seekscreate the criminal figure of urban terrorism.

And while the delivery of patrol cars to the Police is announced, President Dina Boluarte assures that her government works tirelessly to provide security to all Peruvians, thus trying to leave behind that phrase that still resonates with Peruvians: “Peru is now a country that she is at peace and calm” which, in the face of criticism, she had to rectify by clarifying that she is not in the clouds.