Peruvian President José Jerí announced this Tuesday the declaration of a state of emergency in the country’s capital, Lima, and its metropolitan area, as well as in the neighboring city of Callao, for a period of 30 days during which his government, he stated, “goes on the offensive in the fight against crime.”
“It’s over: today we begin to change history in the fight against insecurity in Peru,” Jerí stated in a brief televised address, in which he specified that “the state of emergency approved by the Council of Ministers goes into effect at midnight (local time) and for 30 days in Metropolitan Lima and Callao.”
He also emphasized that his government’s plan “presents a new approach.” “We are moving from the defensive to the offensive in the fight against crime,” he explained, emphasizing that his plan will allow his government to “regain peace, tranquility, and the trust of millions of Peruvians.” “Wars are won with actions, not words,” he concluded.
The declaration came five days after Prime Minister Ernesto Álvarez announced the Lima plan, without mentioning Callao. “The declaration of emergency cannot result in more of the same. It cannot be a gas-like measure that leads to nothing special,” he stated at the time, alluding to an imminent “complete package of concrete measures” that Jerí has also not yet announced.
On the same day, Peru’s Congress rejected a vote of no confidence against the president just six days after his appointment and in response to the police repression the day before that left a 32-year-old man dead and 120 injured.
