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Peru’s Anti-Law Enforcement Turn Is a Threat to Regional Stability

By Will Freeman

International pressure can stop Peru’s Congress from further dismantling the state’s crime-fighting capacities.

Peru’s Congress is recklessly dismantling the nation’s crime-fighting institutions to the benefit of the country’s mafias—increasing the risk of instability, outmigration, and manipulation by malign foreign actors. Last month, Congress passed a law that bars prosecutors from investigating migrant trafficking, illegal logging, embezzlement, and 56 other offenses that carry prison terms of six years or less as organized crime offenses. That means both less time to investigate such cases and more hurdles to placing suspects in pretrial detention. The law, which went into effect on...

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