Theme: Peru

Peru’s government declared a 60-day state of emergency in 1,380 districts out of more than 1,800, over imminent danger from heavy rainfall linked to the El Niño phenomenon. The measure was formalized by Supreme Decree 149-2026-PCM and covers 25 departments and the Constitutional Province of Callao. The National Emergency Operations Center recorded 324 affected people and 110 uninhabitable homes after weekend rains in Tumbes. The technical commission ENFEN said the event will be of extraordinary magnitude through February and weaken through June.

Peru’s president, Keiko Fujimori, arrived on Wednesday night in El Salvador for a four-day official visit, with a meeting with President Nayib Bukele and a tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). Fujimori, who took office on July 28 and had said during the campaign that she wanted to build a Salvadoran-style prison, is visiting the Cecot just over a week after the Costa Rican president’s tour of the megaprison.

A 31-year-old gold trader spent almost 36 hours in a bunker in Trujillo, northern Peru, built in the basement of a house in a residential neighborhood, with no natural light or ventilation and oxygen tanks keeping the captive alive, according to El País. Jenss Lara's statement to the Attorney General's Office, obtained by the newspaper, describes men posing as police officers who handcuffed him and took him to a cell with a steel door and a digital lock. Gangs such as Los Pulpos, which emerged in the city, have turned extorting “protection money” from merchants into a criminal enterprise, and the kidnappings target million-dollar ransoms. Trujillo has been under a state of emergency since 2024, and the fight against crime was a central theme of the campaign that helped Keiko Fujimori win the presidency in June.

The government of Donald Trump revoked the visas of 27 current and former Latin American officials and their family members from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, according to G1. According to the American State Department, the measures involve officials from those countries and are part of an offensive against corruption and drug trafficking. The Associated Press reported that the US revoked the visas of Bolivia's chief prosecutor and other Latin American officials, in a text republished by Gate News.