Extortion is rising, contract killings are up, illegal mining is booming, and Peru’s lawmakers are making matters worse by passing reforms that foster impunity, says a new report.
In recent years, Peru has seen a drastic surge in crime. Homicides rose 137% between 2018 and 2024, extortion soared 370% between 2021 and 2023, and illegal gold exports reached record numbers.
But findings from Human Rights Watch’s latest report suggest Peru’s security crisis is also a political one, driven by a Congress that actively enables impunity while dismantling institutional checks.
Over half of federal legislators are under criminal investigation, and accusations of corruption and criminality have increasingly been weaponized for political purposes in recent years, contributing to significant political instability. This has given lawmakers an incentive to weaken the state’s crimefighting capabilities in order to protect their personal and political interests.
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Below, we outline three ways Peruvian lawmakers are undermining the fight against organized crime, according to the human rights organization.
Peru’s Congress recently passed a series of laws that strip prosecutors and investigators of tools to combat crime.
In May 2023, statutes of limitations were reduced to just one year, prompting case dismissals over time constraints, including one involving the then-president of Congress. The following month, lawmakers restricted the use of cooperating witnesses and required video-recorded testimony—changes that discouraged insider cooperation.
In July 2024, Congress then mandated defense attorneys to be present during search warrants, limiting the element of surprise and allowing suspects to destroy evidence or flee. Similarly, this April, a new rule barred asset forfeiture until after conviction, giving criminals time to hide ill-gotten wealth during lengthy trials.
The new laws have worsened the operational gaps of a system already dealing with resource constraints and heavy workloads, said Christian Campos Vásquez, a research associate at the Institute of Criminology and Violence Studies (Instituto de Criminología y Estudios Sobre la Violencia – ICEV) in Peru.
“Before the reforms of recent years, we had a police, justice, and prosecution system that operated with scarce resources, limited budgets, and a heavy load of files.”
Political Interference in the Judiciary
Legislators have dismantled judicial independence, turning oversight bodies into politically compromised entities by appointing Constitutional Court judges through opaque processes, and pushing bills that let Congress sanction or remove judges and prosecutors without due process.
Notably, in March 2024, Congress ousted two National Board of Justice members amid an influence‑peddling investigation against the then‑Attorney General Patricia Benavides. Benavides had previously drawn scrutiny for dismissing the prosecutor investigating her sister, who is a judge, Emma Benavides, for allegedly taking bribes to release drug traffickers. Cases involving corruption and elites are now less likely to proceed because judiciary officials are discouraged from pursuing them.
Congress’s assault on judicial independence is not just opportunism but a response to perceived overreach by judicial authorities, Andrés Romaña, a Peruvian political analyst, explains. He cites long-running investigations that imposed harsh measures on individuals without convictions, such as former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, under investigation for alleged Odebrecht ties for over a decade. Despite no conviction to date, his homes were seized, and he has been barred from seeing his wife or leaving the country.
“By law, you are innocent until it is proven otherwise. But in recent years, it has seemed more like they have changed to, you’re guilty until the opposite is confirmed,” Romaña told InSight Crime.
Undermining Transparency
Congress has also advanced a wave of legislation that curtails independent oversight.
In April, for example, it passed an “anti‑NGO” bill, justified as enhancing transparency in foreign-funded organizations. In practice, it prohibits NGOs from using international funds for legal action against the state, such as lawsuits over rights violations, environmental harms, or constitutional claims. Violations can result in steep fines or suspension, stifling core advocacy work.
Simultaneously, Congress is pushing bills to broaden defamation laws and require retractions within 24 hours of receiving notice —a move critics say deters investigative journalism. Romaña notes that in a system where trials drag on for years, simply being sued acts as punishment, draining journalists’ resources through costly legal proceedings regardless of the outcome. The criminalization of independent media removes a critical check on government power, facilitating unchecked authority.
Congress also declined to ratify the Escazú Agreement, a regional treaty that ensures public access to environmental information and justice. The refusal weakens protections against illegal logging and mining, Peru’s most pressing environmental crimes.
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The HRW report offers a range of recommendations to deal with the dynamics laid out above, including urging Congress to reject laws that expand its power over the judiciary, and calling on prosecutors to investigate officials’ ties to organized crime. But those directives feel out of step from the institutional realities the report itself outlines.
Romaña agrees that deeper reforms to the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office are needed, but warns: “Congress is too illegitimate to undertake a reform of this magnitude.”
Experts agree that accountability might be more likely to come from the electorate. With the 2026 elections approaching, better-informed citizens could be Peru’s best bet in the goal for a more transparent, accountable government.
Featured Image: Anti-government protests in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Credit: Samantha Hare, Flickr (w/ Creative Commons license).