Lima, Peru — Peru’s President Dina Boluarte on November 21 appointed the country’s fourth Minister of the Interior in less than a year.
Minister Víctor Manuel Torres, a police general who will replace Vicente Romero, another police general who was impeached by Congress on November 15 with a vote of 75 in favor, 28 against, and 14 abstentions. The decision was made while Boluarte was in the United States participating in the Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC 2023).
Romero was the first minister to be impeached during the often rocky administration of Boluarte. According to Congress, Romero was impeached due to “his manifest technical incapacity for leadership and lack of suitability for the exercise of the position.”
Congress complained about Romero’s poor performance confronting rising public security problems around Lima as well as in the northern department of Piura.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), 26.9% of Peruvians aged 15 and older in urban areas across the country were victims of some form of crime in the first semester of 2023. Compared to the January-June semesters of 2021 and 2022, this figure increased by 9.3% and 4.3%, respectively.
In cities with a population of over 20,000 inhabitants, the percentage of the population that fell victim to some form of crime was even higher in the first semester of 2023, reaching 30.5%.
About the new Minister of the Interior
Retired General Víctor Manuel Torres, aged 64, has served as the Director of Institutional Management for the National Police.
In 2011, he was appointed as the police chief in the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers Valley (VRAEM), to lead the police force in an area of the country with heavy drug trafficking activity.
Just a day after being appointed, local media reported that the new minister has an accusation of domestic violence open against him. Allegedly, Torres’ sister denounced the new minister for physical and psychological aggression related to an inheritance dispute,
However, the day after his appointment, it was revealed that the new minister faces an accusation of domestic violence. Torres’s sister reported him for physical and psychological aggression related to an inheritance the siblings share.