Peru Prison Emergency Covers Five Jails, One Left Unguarded

Peru has placed five maximum-security prisons under a state of emergency, covering their perimeters, not their interior wings. The decree, Supreme Decree 128-2026, was announced on Friday and formalized by decree the next day, running for sixty days. President Keiko Fujimori's government took office on 28 July, making this one of its first large security measures.

The target of the emergency is organized crime operating from within the prisons, with extortion rings directed by telephone from inside cells. Two of the five prisons are in Lima: Miguel Castro Castro and Ancón I. Challapalca, Cochamarca, and Trujillo Varones are located in Tacna, Pasco, and La Libertad, respectively. The emergency was announced in response to extortion complaints, which primarily come from La Libertad and Lima.

The armed forces support the national police outside the prison walls, while the penal authority remains responsible for running the prisons. A state of emergency in Peru suspends certain constitutional guarantees, allowing searches and detentions without a warrant. However, it does not remove a single telephone from a cell, as that work is done under different powers.

On Sunday, Infobae visited Castro Castro and reported no visible police or military guard at the perimeter, despite the prison being named in the decree. This deployment had not arrived on the day the decree was published. The distinction matters for how the measure is judged, as a decree without officers on the ground changes nothing at the gate.

Peru's extortion problem has grown sharply over the past three years, with small businesses, transport operators, and schools being common targets. The government will be judged on whether extortion complaints fall in La Libertad, given that the majority of complaints originate there. The emergency could become the new normal if no renewal is requested in November, addressing neither the underlying problem nor the presence of soldiers at the prison perimeters.