Peru announced a state of emergency Sunday evening in the capital Lima for a wave of murders related to extortion.
The decision occurred after singer Paul Flores was shot dead by a hit killers who attacked a bus which he was riding with group comrades when they left a concert outside Lima, officials said.
The Ministry of Culture of Peru paid tribute to Flores on social networksSaying that the main singer of the popular group Armonía 10 “won the hearts of thousands of Peruvians”.
The musicians had been threatened by a criminal gang who tried to extort money from them, said their representatives.
“It has been ordered that in the coming hours, a state of emergency was decreed throughout the province of Lima and the constitutional province of Callao”, Gustavo Adrianzen, head of the ministerial cabinet, Published on social networks.
Adrianzen said troops would be deployed to support the national police and a security meeting that was scheduled for the end of the month would now be held on Tuesday.
“In the fight against organized crime, all Peruvians must be united, overcoming all our differences of all kinds,” he said in a statement.
While extortion is a problem through Latin America, it has taken alarming proportions in Peru – a phenomenon partly charged to criminal gangs such as Tren of Aragua from Venezuela which operates in several countries of Latin America.
In January, a journalist who reported the extortion epidemic of Peru was fell And two people were injured in a separate bomb crisis against the office of a prosecutor who also investigates the racketeering.
Since January, more than 400 murders have been reported, according to local media.
Peru declared the state of emergency in certain parts of the capital last year and deployed the army in response to a series of murders of bus drivers charged to the racketeering pandemic.
During the first 10 months of 2024, police received more than 14,000 extortion complaints. But the problem is supposed to be more widespread because many victims do not report cases out of fear.
