Lima, December 13 (EFE). – The representation of the Vente Venezuela (VV) party in Peru, led by the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, expressed this Saturday its “deep concern and resolute opposition” to police actions that, it noted, are carried out “selectively against Venezuelan citizens” on Peruvian territory.
The group denounced in a statement that these operations were characterized by “massive searches, forced transfers to police stations and public exposure,” even though the vast majority of those who intervened had fully regular immigration documents.
He directly mentioned an operation carried out in the last few hours in which, according to him, around 1,500 Venezuelans were taken to police stations, claiming that, according to official figures, only around 90 of them were in an irregular immigration situation.
“These data show that the police actions were disproportionate, arbitrary and lacked legal rationality,” he added, pointing out that the Peruvian state’s official statistics “deny any attempt at stigmatization.”
VV in Peru asserted that there are “several testimonies” about insults and degrading treatment, as well as the media’s exposure of Venezuelan citizens by the media, “whereby they are publicly ridiculed and collectively stigmatized without being accused of a crime.”
For this reason, he called for “the immediate cessation of discriminatory police operations against Venezuelan citizens in a regular situation” in Peru and the “urgent review” of police intervention protocols to ensure respect for due process and human rights.
In addition, there are administrative sanctions for proven cases of verbal abuse, abuse of authority and inappropriate public display, as well as a space for an institutional dialogue between the Peruvian state and Venezuelan diaspora organizations “to develop real, technical and respectful solutions”.
Peruvian authorities reported Saturday that more than 1,500 foreigners without specifying their nationality were arrested in Lima and Callao as part of a major operation against irregular migration that was also carried out in other cities such as Arequipa and Trujillo.
The intervention was supervised by Peruvian President José Jerí and carried out “as part of the government’s strategy to combat crime and organized crime,” he assured.
In this regard, Prime Minister Ernesto Álvarez recalled that there is a state of emergency in Lima and the neighboring province of Callao, which “represents a legal element, a legal framework that allows, for example, foreign citizens to intervene whose identification is required.”
Álvarez stressed that the government will not allow the presence of migrants in an irregular state because, as he said, Peru is “a country dedicated to all people, whether nationals or foreigners, but who are committed to work, to productive achievement for the benefit of their families and the country that welcomes them.”
Peru is the second largest country in the world after Colombia with the highest level of Venezuelan migration, receiving more than 1.5 million citizens from that country in recent years. EFE
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