Development: On 12 October, in answer to a question about the decision to retire 30 senior members of the national police, Interior Minister Oscar Valdés announced that the move was just the tip of the iceberg, with a total restructuring of the force to follow.
Significance: “We are re-engineering the police, which is necessary if it is to be the force with which the state combats narco-trafficking, terrorism and citizen insecurity”, said Valdés. In order to establish a new hierarchy or ‘pyramid’, some 600 police colonels and 1,200 commanders will be axed. Moving forward, the military will have sole responsibility for the ‘ungovernable’ hotspots, whilst a slimmed down “more efficient” police force will be responsible for intelligence, internal order and border security. Police colonels will be assigned greater autonomy and decision-making power, without the need to consult the top tier generals.
Apparently, these changes will be implemented by the end of the year. The new structure harks back to the military regime led by the left-leaning general Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), who led a bloodless military coup in 1968 and was one of President Ollanta Humala’s early inspirations.
Key points:
• The police law of promotions will be reformed to “privilege merit”. Investigations have shown that currently in many instances promotions are bartered or sold, rather than being awarded on merit, encouraging corruption and cronyism.
• Valdés denied that the new structure effectively represents a return to the three police institutions of the past, comprised of a civil guard, a republican guard and an investigative police.
• Concentrating powers in a single police institution could prove problematic should the Humala administration ever fall out with the new force.
