Peru's Ministry of Defense has proposed classifying transnational criminal organizations operating in the country as "hostile groups," a designation that would let the armed forces join the police in combating them.
The plan would apply to groups including Comando Vermelho and the Primeiro Comando da Capital, which operate near the Brazilian border, Los Choneros and Los Lobos near the Ecuadorian border, Tren de Aragua, which originated in Venezuela, and national megagangs such as Los Gallegos, Los Pulpos and La Jauria.
Under Peru's government, classifying a group as hostile or terrorist would allow the state to target the assets and property of anyone associated with it and to share intelligence information that could lead to potentially lethal action against the group. A hostile group is defined as an armed organization or set of people with the structure and capacity to sustain confrontation with the state using lethal force.
Extortion and kidnapping figures
According to the Public Ministry's Crime Observatory, 96,111 extortion offenses were reported between 2022 and July 2026, alongside 19,672 kidnapping cases in the same period.
The Public Ministry also recorded 252 attacks linked to alleged extortion in public transport in metropolitan Lima and Callao between August 2024 and August 2026, leaving 333 victims, including 165 dead and 168 injured.
From January to August of this year, Peru's National Death Information System, known as Sinadef, recorded 1,417 homicides, of which 1,014 were caused by firearms.
Proposal to amend Decree 1095
In response, the Defense Ministry is proposing to declare criminal organizations hostile groups so the armed forces can support the fight against them. Defense Minister Rafael Belaunde Llosa proposed amending Legislative Decree No. 1095, which governs the rules for the use of force by the armed forces within Peru's territory.
Belaunde said the goal was to clarify the criteria for determining when a criminal organization can be considered a hostile group, in order to strengthen the legal framework for armed forces intervention. He made the remarks while presenting a request for legislative powers before the Constitution, Regulation and Foreign Relations Committee of Peru's Chamber of Deputies.
The formula being promoted is one favored by the United States, though many specialists have advised against it.
Lawmaker calls the plan senseless
Congressman Harvey Colchado, a former national police officer regarded as an expert in criminal investigation and corruption cases, said classifying criminal acts as terrorism makes no sense, since the two types of organizations pursue different goals: terrorists seek political objectives, while criminal gangs seek only profit.
Noam Lopez, a researcher and political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, warned that labeling criminal organizations as terrorists does not by itself guarantee an improvement in the fight against citizen insecurity.
He said what actually hampers the fight against crime is the state's limited capacity to investigate, uncover criminal networks, follow the money trail, control prisons and secure convictions against the guilty.
Lopez said terrorism and organized crime can share violent methods but follow entirely different logics, since terrorism seeks to generate terror for a political purpose while organized crime mainly pursues economic gain and control of illegal markets.
Former Interior Minister Gaston Rodriguez, however, backed the proposal to declare criminal gangs hostile groups so that the armed forces can take a more effective role in the fight for citizen security.
What the government wants
The government said the aim is for transnational criminal organizations operating in Peru to be classified as hostile groups and therefore become military targets.
The proposed new definition of a hostile group, contained in section 4.1 of article 4 of the decree, would allow the armed forces to intervene in support of the National Police, within the framework of international humanitarian law, to neutralize military targets and degrade an adversary's combat capacity while protecting the civilian population.
According to the defense minister, the criteria currently set out in Decree 1095 are too restrictive to classify as hostile groups organizations dedicated to crime that have national or transnational structures, that use lethal capacity against civilians, and that wield influence over the economy through illegal activities such as drug trafficking, illegal mining and human trafficking.
Through the amendment, the government hopes to reduce crime linked mainly to extortion and contract killing, improve the public's perception of security, strengthen the legal backing for the armed forces' actions, and allow a response to criminal organizations that, given their characteristics and operational capacity, exceed the ordinary response capabilities of police forces.
