Paul Flores: Peru threatens the death penalty after the murder of a popular cumbia singer

The Peruvian government has hardened its crusade against violence after the murder of the singer Paul Flores The Russian, voice of the popular cumbia group Harmony 10. After an urgent meeting on Sunday at the Government Palace, state of emergency was decreed in Lima, for 30 days, with the consequent Military troops display in support of the National Police.

The shock forced the president to react, On Biguarte at the forefront of a weakened government and in permanent crisis, in which the fall of the powerful Minister of Interior appears, Juan Santiváñez. “These damn murderers are told that I am seriously thinking about the death penalty because no hitman, no extortioner, can stain blood (Peruvian families). We will not allow one more dead From a Peruvian who honestly works, “the first president threatened today Monday during the inauguration of the school year and in front of an auditorium full of children and young people.

The death penalty is only applicable in Peru for cases of betrayal to the countryas determined by the constitution in force for almost half a century. The country is part of the Treaty of San José de Costa Rica, which prevents it from launching this measure.

Two bullets reached Flores in the early hours of Sunday inside the band’s bus, which took him from one concert to another in the capital of Lima. Several hitmen shot at the vehiclebut the rest of the band members launched immediately, while the vocalist of harmony 10, a group very often by the young people of popular neighborhoods, slept. The first investigations relate the attack with extortion bands, which not only demand money in shops and companies, also against musical groups.

So far this year, at least 444 homicides have been registered in Peru, in what is considered the worst wave of violence of recent times. Insecurity, which overwhelms Peruvians, has further cracked the weakness of a very unpopular president, who resists at the head of the country thanks to several anti -infection pacts, from Fujimorism to the radical left.

Precisely the Fujimorist Fuerza Popular has demanded in the last hours the resignation of Minister Santiváñez, while society contemplates the inefficiency of rulers and parliamentarians, who accuse of failure in security policy. Only in recent days the businessman Alberto Goycochea He was shot dead in Lima for refusing to pay an extortion of 300,000 soles (75,000 euros).

“We are at a break point. The death of the singer of harmony 10, very dear to many people, has hurt a lot. This crime has remembered the scenarios of terrorism (Shining Path). The announcement of Boluarte about the death penalty is an effective measure to counteract insecurity, which believes that it serves as salvadavidas because its own popularity is in fall and the matter is going to the world, the matter is in the world. political analyst Maite Vizcarrawho surely gives the departure of Minister Santiváñez, survivor of various censorship motions to whom his time seems to have arrived.

“I am absolutely convinced that I will go with my forehead up”the Minister of Interior said lapidary in the last hours.

Boluarte has resisted against wind and tidal seated on Pizarro’s chair since the fall of Pedro Castillohis predecessor and presidential formula partner in the candidacy of the Marxist Party Peru Libre. Precisely last week the trial began against the former president, who headed a failed state of state in December 2022 and who still has the support of several leaders of the American pink tide.

It is expected that in April Boluarte announce presidential and parliamentary elections for the same month of next year.

Last week the Peruvian Congress joined other countries in the region to declare the dreaded Aragua train that has maintained ties with Chavismo, as a terrorist organization. For years, this transnational mafia born in Venezuela has extended its tentacles in the Andean country, where not only acts in the sale of drugs, but also in human trafficking, extortion and prostitution.

In the last joint operation with the US, the Peruvian police arrested 23 soldiers from the Aragua train and released 84 victims of trafficking in persons.