The Government of Peru reported this Sunday that it will declare the state of emergency in the next few hours in Metropolitan Lima and its neighboring province of Callao, with the authorization for the deployment of the Armed Forces in support of the National Police. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister, Gustavo Adrianzén, in a message posted on the social network X, in the midst of the crisis generated by the wave of criminal violence that hits the country, which this Sunday triggered in the death of the singer of a popular cumbia group.
“After sustained meeting in the Government Palace, it has been arranged that in the next few hours the state of emergency is decreed throughout the province of Lima and the Constitutional Province of Callao, with the deployment of troops of our Armed Forces in support of the National Police,” said Prime Minister. Adrianzén indicated that it has also been agreed to convene for this Tuesday a meeting of the National Council of Citizen Security (Conasec), which brings together the main authorities of the State’s powers, and decree a reform of the country’s prison system.
“It is planned to decree a comprehensive reform of the penitentiary system. In the fight against organized crime, all Peruvians must keep us together, overcoming all our differences are of any kind,” he said. The prime minister made this announcement hours after parties of different political trends, including the Fujimorist Popular Force, demanded the resignation or dismissal of the Interior Minister, Juan José Santiváñez.
The pronouncements increased as a wave of outrage in the country progresses, after singer Paul Flores, one of the vocalists of the popular Cumbia Harmony Group 10, died this Sunday after the group of the group was attacked with firearms by strangers on a Lima highway. Adrianzén said, in this regard, his “more felt condolences to the relatives, colleagues and friends of whom in life was Paul Flores” and said “that this repudiable crime will not be unpunished.”
Shortly before, the opposition congresswoman Suel Paredes announced that she has already achieved the firms necessary to present a motion of censure against Santiváñez. The parliamentarian said that, after the presentation of the motion, “the real party now begins to see who defends Peru”, referring to the fact that the petition will have to be discussed and voted in the next few days by Congress.
The motion, which Paredes announced two weeks ago that it was going to promote, but had not yet managed to collect the necessary signatures, now has the support of conservative, right, centrist and left legislators. The demand for the departure of Santiváñez del position also received this Sunday the support of parties such as the Fujimorist Popular Force, the ultraconservator popular renewal and the rightist progresses country.
The pronouncement of these groups implies a radical change in the support they gave so far to Santiváñez, who despite the criticisms made by a large sector of citizenship and opposition parties has been strongly defended by President Dina Boluarte. After the attack that caused the death of flowers, local media pointed out that Harmony 10 is apparently a victim of criminals dedicated to extortion that requires “large sums of money in exchange for their security.”
