Fujimori creates elite unit of 1,350 officers following 25 transport worker killings in Lima
President Fujimori announced a special police-military body in response to escalating crime. Over 60 attacks and 25 transport worker deaths have been recorded in two months.
New elite unit fails to halt wave of crime against public transport in Peru
Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori announced on Wednesday the creation of an elite unit of 1,350 police officers and military personnel to combat criminality, according to independentespanol.com. The announcement comes after two months of security measures have failed to stop attacks against transport workers in Lima.
Since the introduction of those measures, more than 60 armed attacks against public transport vehicles and 25 murders of drivers have been recorded, according to figures from Peruvian authorities.
Fujimori made the announcement from the Headquarters of the Armed Forces, before battalions of military and police personnel, with armoured vehicles equipped with machine guns and two MI17 helicopters as a backdrop. "We are going to place these miserable criminals at the disposal of justice and protect society so they are prosecuted according to law," the president stated.
The president also reiterated her intention to order the expulsion "at record speed" of foreigners who have entered the country to commit crimes, regain control of prisons, and isolate inmates who continue to direct criminal operations from inside prison.
The announcement coincides with a notable deterioration in Fujimori's public image: her disapproval nearly doubled in September to 48%, whilst her approval fell 15 points to 42%, according to an Ipsos Peru poll. In August her popularity was 57% and her unpopularity was 25%.
The government had launched the "Shield" plan in August to protect transport workers in Lima from attacks by extortionists who murder them in front of passengers, and decreed a state of exception with restrictions to constitutional rights. Neither of the two measures has succeeded in containing the violence.
Fujimori's trip to El Salvador, scheduled for 28 to 31 October, to meet with President Nayib Bukele frames the political context of the announcement. During her electoral campaign, Fujimori promised to apply Bukele's security model in Peru, including the construction of a prison similar to the Terrorism Confinement Centre.
The precedents are not encouraging: over more than a decade, different Peruvian governments created around ten special police units to tackle organised crime, without sustained results. Complaints of extortion rose from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025, and homicides increased from 2,385 to 3,675 cases in the same period, according to official figures.
Source: Google News PE — Crime