Peru’s Opposition Moves to Oust the Minister in Charge of Its Police
PERU · POLITICS · SECURITY
Key Facts
- The country Peru, a country of about 34 million people and one of the world’s biggest copper producers, has been governed by Keiko Fujimori since 28 July 2026. Her campaign promise was to restore public safety.
- The background Peru’s Congress has removed three presidents since 2020 and regularly forces ministers out. Since the 2026 election it has two chambers again, and the 130-seat Chamber of Deputies can censure ministers.
- Why now Peru recorded 1,499 homicides by August, more than in any full year from 2017 to 2023. On 19 September a regional candidate was shot dead nine days after reporting threats.
- What happened On 24 September, 35 opposition deputies filed a motion to censure Interior Minister César Astudillo Salcedo, who runs the police. The vote must take place between 28 September and 4 October.
- The numbers Censure needs 66 of 130 votes. The three sponsoring parties hold 64 seats between them, and a ten-seat party is undecided.
- What it means for you Nothing changes today for residents or visitors. A censured minister must resign, which would restart security leadership during the 4 October local elections.
- Still open The date of the vote, and whether the sponsoring parties vote as blocs.
Peru’s opposition has filed the first motion to censure a minister in President Keiko Fujimori’s two-month-old government. The target is César Astudillo Salcedo, the interior minister responsible for the police.
The motion accuses him of “manifest incapacity” as killings rise and after the murder of a regional election candidate. On paper its backers are two votes short of the majority they need.
Who the minister is
Astudillo is a retired army general, not a police officer. In 1997 he led an assault team in Operation Chavín de Huántar.
It freed 72 hostages held at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima. He headed the armed forces’ joint command from 2018 to 2021.
He won a Senate seat for Fujimori’s party, Fuerza Popular, in 2026. He gave it up to join the cabinet on 28 July.
The Chamber already questioned him on 17 September. That questioning, known as an interpellation, carried no vote; a censure does.
What the motion says
The motion was filed by Juntos por el Perú, the left-wing party of Fujimori’s run-off rival. Deputies from two smaller parties, Obras and the Partido del Buen Gobierno, also signed.
It calls for censure over “manifest incapacity” in running the sector and the “worsening of lethal violence”. The text says his “manifest incapacity for leadership and lack of suitability” for the office have been established.
It cites figures from Sinadef, the health ministry’s death registry. Those preliminary figures show 1,499 homicides by August, above the full-year total of every year from 2017 to 2023.
It adds 248 homicides in the government’s first 46 days, 73 percent of them with firearms. That is more than five killings a day.
The second charge concerns Susy Aponte Polo, a journalist and candidate for the Áncash regional government. She was shot dead at a campaign event in Caraz on 19 September.
Nine days earlier she had said that callers from three prisons warned her a police general had ordered an attack on her. The motion says the ministry opened no disciplinary inquiry and gave her no protection in that time.
A day after the killing, a decree reassigned that general, Víctor Revoredo Farfán, among 23 police generals. Astudillo told Canal N the move had been decided days earlier and that the timing was a coincidence.
The arithmetic
Filing a censure needs a quarter of the Chamber’s members, and the motion has 35 signatures. Passing it needs more than half the legal membership, at least 66 of 130 deputies.
Juntos por el Perú holds 32 seats, Buen Gobierno 18 and Obras 14, according to the newspaper La República. That makes 64, two short.
The ten deputies of Ahora Nación, another opposition party, are undecided. Its leader, Alfonso López Chau, said that “one has to think of the country”.
Obras is not solid either. Its leader, Ricardo Belmont, said his deputies had not consulted him and called their backing “surely each one’s opinion”.
Buen Gobierno says it has reached a “consensus” for censure. Astudillo noted that the same party had opposed his interpellation.
That earlier vote shows the gap: the interpellation passed on 10 September with 50 votes for and 65 against. It needed only a third of the Chamber.
The government’s answer
Prime Minister Luis Galarreta asked deputies to act “with great responsibility”. “Changing ministers is not the solution,” he said on 25 September, noting that Astudillo had been in office for about 60 days.
Astudillo told the newspaper Correo that he would accept whatever the constitution requires. He said the motion was not really about his performance: “We all know perfectly well why it is.”
He argued that a censure would deepen insecurity, because “all the criminals must be celebrating”.
What comes next
Under the Chamber’s rules the motion must be debated and voted between the fourth and tenth day after filing. That puts the vote between Monday 28 September and Sunday 4 October; no date has been set.
If it passes, Astudillo must resign. Fujimori would then have 72 hours to accept and name a replacement, in the same week as nationwide regional and municipal elections.
The post is exposed. The old single-chamber Congress censured interior ministers in November 2022 and March 2025, and removed presidents in 2020, 2022 and 2025.
A censure would remove one minister, not the government. Galarreta argues that the answer to crime lies in a cabinet-wide plan, not in personnel.
Failure would not end the pressure either. By mid-September deputies had already summoned nine of Fujimori’s ministers for questioning.
More: Peru news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a censure motion in Peru?
It is a vote in which Congress withdraws its confidence from a minister. In the new Chamber of Deputies it needs at least 66 of 130 votes, and a censured minister must resign.
Who is César Astudillo?
He is Peru’s interior minister, in charge of the national police, since 28 July 2026. He is a retired army general who led an assault team in the 1997 Japanese embassy hostage rescue and later headed the armed forces’ joint command.
Would a censure bring down Keiko Fujimori’s government?
No. It would remove only the interior minister. The president would have 72 hours to accept his resignation and appoint a replacement.
Does this change anything for visitors to Peru?
Not directly. No travel, visa or residency rule changes. Violent crime is concentrated in extortion of businesses and transport operators, especially in Lima and the north, and visitors should follow their own government’s advice.
Sources: El Comercio, censure motion filed, 24 September 2026, Infobae, how and when the vote works, 25 September 2026, Infobae, the motion’s grounds, 25 September 2026, La República, Buen Gobierno backs censure, 27 September 2026, La República, Belmont on his deputies, 26 September 2026, El Comercio, Galarreta on the censure, 25 September 2026, Correo, interview with César Astudillo, 27 September 2026, Congress of Peru, interpellation admitted 50–65–1 (press release), September 2026, Infobae, profile of César Astudillo, 28 July 2026, Jornada, filing threshold and 72-hour rule, September 2026. All retrieved 28 September 2026.
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