Peru: Information on the PIP

The Peruvian Investigations Police (Policía de Investigaciones del Perú - PIP) was for many years one of the three branches of the police forces. Although it was independent of the other two, the Guardia Civil (GC or Civil Guard) and the Guardia Republicana (GR or Republican Guard), all three were under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. When Alan García took office in 1985, the general public reportedly perceived the three police forces as being "in disarray, riddled with corruption and out of control". [Human Rights in Peru After President García's First Year (Washington, D.C.: Americas Watch, September 1986).] One of García's first popular measures was to dismiss a number of police officers from the three branches in what was described as an anti-corruption drive. However, government officials and observers reportedly believed some fifty percent of the police were corrupt, so only a small fraction of the corrupt sector of the police had been affected, whereas some of those dismissed had performed well. [Ibid.] Concerns about the moral integrity of the PIP were increased after some of the former directors of that institution were tried in connection with a cocaine-smuggling ring, at least one of them (Former PIP General José Jorge Z rate) being convicted in mid-1989. ["Villa Coca: Mate al Rey", in Caretas, 3 July 1989, pp. 42-43.]

According to the Peruvian Embassy, the three branches were recently unified under a law which created the National Police (Policía Nacional, PN) and re-named the PIP as the Technical Police (Policía Técnica, PT). The PIP has been the only police body in charge of drug-related crimes, mainly through its División de Narcóticos or Narcotics Division and the Dirección Nacional de Tr fico Ilicito de Drogas or National Directorate of Illegal Drug Trade, DINTID. The State Security Directorate (Dirección de Seguridad del Estado, DSE) has also been part of the organization. More recently, it has headed investigations on terrorist activities and abductions under its Anti-Terrorist Directorate (Dirección Contra el Terrorismo, DIRCOTE) and Anti-Abduction Division (Division Anti-Secuestros, DIVISE). It is also responsible for investigating all major crimes including murders and thefts above a certain amount, as well as issuing criminal record certificates. According to another source [Encyclopedia of the Third World (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1987), p. 1605.], the PIP had by 1987 "some 3,400 men organized in five regions: Lima, Piura, Arequipa, Cuzco and Iquitos. The force has four functional divisions: control of aliens and narcotics, investigation of organized and white collar crime, counterintelligence and transportation of criminals."

Although all police forces are accountable to the Ministry of the Interior, according to one source [Peru Briefing (London:amnesty International, January 1985), p. 6.] "all police activity dealing with counter-insurgency has been placed under the direction of the Armed Forces Joint Command."

Various sources report that members of the PIP and more recently the Technical Police, including the regional chief of DIRCOTE's southern operations, have been victims of terrorist and guerrilla attacks, mostly by the "Sendero Luminoso" [Andean Newsletter (Lima, Andean Commission of Jurists), Caretas (Peruvian weekly newsmagazine) and Latin America Daily Report (Washington, D.C.: Foreign Broadcast Information Service), various issues.]

On the other hand, DIRCOTE, the PIP and police forces in general are reported to use torture often for interrogating suspects in both common and security cases [Tolerating Abuses: Violations of Human Rights in Peru (Washington: Americas Watch, October 1988), p. 44.] There are also reports of lack of cooperation between the Investigations Police and prosecutors taking cases to court [Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988 (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), p. 687.] Some media and government officials, including the director of the PIP, criticized the new role assigned by law to prosecutors, stating that the prosecutors' lack of experience in conducting investigations hampered these. [Tolerating Abuses, p. 29.] Police forces have also been accused of participating in "disappearances", all its branches being held responsible by a human rights organization for eight percent of the 1988 total of approximately 360. [Report of APRODEH [Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos] in "Mar De Fondo", Caretas, January 23, p. 24.]