The Constitution, Regulation and Foreign Relations Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru has given the green light to a legislative formula that proposes to grant powers to the government of President Keiko Fujimori so that it can legislate exclusively on citizen security and in response to the effects of the El Niño Phenomenon for a period of 90 days.
The ruling has been approved by a majority, with thirteen favorable votes, five against, and two abstentions, just a few hours after this same working group rejected, with 15 votes against, an initial proposal that aimed to directly archive the Executive's request.
The new proposal has been configured as a consensus text among the technical teams of Renovación Popular, Partido Cívico Obras, Ahora Nación, and Partido del Buen Gobierno. With this agreement, the aim has been to limit the scope of the powers initially claimed by the government and to avoid granting a "blank check," as emphasized by the congress members of Juntos por el Perú, the party to which the president of the commission, Giannina Avendaño, belongs.
According to the statement released by Congress, during the parliamentary debate, the spokespeople of Fuerza Popular have valued that the initiative represents a step forward, although they consider it "insufficient" given the current situation of citizen insecurity. Meanwhile, legislators from the ruling bench have reproached that the final text does not include greater powers in the areas of intelligence, participation of the Armed Forces, and control of penitentiary centers.
The processing of this legislative measure advances in parallel to the recent statements of Fujimori, who warned that her Cabinet was "demonstrating patience" in the face of the prolonged delay of Parliament, but that the Executive would continue to advance "beyond what they say."
In the area of security, the head of state highlighted Peru's incorporation into the "Shield of the Americas" -- an initiative promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump -- and the operational coordination with the FBI to combat transnational organized crime. In this context, she called for political support for the state security forces, establishing a parallelism with the police and military work that allowed the defeat of Sendero Luminoso and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).