Peruvian Mayors Being Targeted for Murder

The Association of Municipalities of Peru representing 1,876 mayors nationwide approached the Ministry of the Interior Tuesday, claiming there is a rise in crime that is affecting their well-being.

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They are asking for a law that provides security personnel for municipal authorities. Around 100 mayors have received extortion calls or text messages, 70 have gotten death threats, and in the last 30 days, three mayors were assassinated.

The number of mayors with reported death threats has increased by 30 since last year. The majority of those receiving death threats are from the regions of Lima, La Libertad, Ancash, Puno, and Huanuco. The extortion messages consist of demands for monetary payments.

Antonio Murillo, mayor of Tayacaja in the southern Andes of Peru, is one of those who has received death threats. He explained, “before we traveled in the cars from the municipality freely, but now because we are persecuted, we have to be in disguise. My family is terrified,” he added.

Other threats allegedly come from political rivals. One of the three mayors recently murdered was Luis Yuri, the elected official from the province of Yautan, in northern Peru. His relatives claim there were political motives for his assassination. Yuri’s son, Carlos, told La Republica newspaper, “My father was murdered for political reasons. They wanted to make it look like a robbery but he was being followed … and the criminals went inside his bus with the goal of murdering him.”

Yuri’s wife, Medaly Ramirez, supports that argument. She claims Yuri received a death threat a week before his murder. “It’s because there are many people interested in taking over the municipality,” she said. She also claims that those who killed him did not take Yuri’s valuables, instead, they shot him and left.

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Pedro Ramirez a representative of the Association of Municipalities of Peru, demanded action by the government. Minister of the Interior Carlos Basombrio responded, “I want you to understand how difficult is to establish security for approximately 2,000 mayors in Peru, and in those far away places of Peru. What we have to aim for is destroying the bands dedicated to extortions and assassinations.”

According to official figures, in some regions of the country, there is one police officer for every 900 inhabitants. However, the United Nations recommends 1 for every 300 citizens.