Peru's buses targeted by rising gang violence

Police officers are a regular sight at the terminal of the Santa Catalina bus company in Peru's capital, Lima. Transportation companies in the South American country are increasingly becoming victims of extortionists. According to police reports, at least 75 bus drivers were murdered in 2025, most of them in Lima.

The bus terminal may look peaceful, but behind the scenes organized crime has reached alarming proportions. Across Peru, reported murders have more than doubled from 1,000 to 2,600 per year, while the number of extortion cases has increased more than eightfold to 26,500.

Police officers now regularly escort buses on their journeys through Lima. Extortionists threaten not only bus companies, but small businesses of all kinds, from hair salons and grocery stores to private schools. Rising crime is also a central issue in the Peruvian presidential election, which began on Sunday.

Crime rates are particularly high in the outskirts of Lima. During the election campaign, the 35 candidates outdid each other with at times absurd proposals for combating crime: Lima's former mayor, Rafael "Porky" Lopez Aliaga, for example, wants to build prison colonies in the jungle if he wins the election.

Bus driver Zacarias Lopez Bujaico steers a bus through San Juan de Lurigancho, one of Lima's neighborhoods most affected by the crime wave. He has little faith in the promises of the presidential candidates. "They promise and never deliver. They play with our feelings, and we keep getting shot," Lopez told the AFP news agency.

This poster commemorates a murdered bus driver; drivers have sometimes been shot dead in front of their passengers. Many transport companies have increased their security measures in response to gang-related crime. Santa Catalina recently installed video surveillance in its vehicles, and there are also emergency buttons that drivers can press.

What looks like a typical passenger is actually an undercover investigator, trained to intervene in the event of a robbery. Police officers in uniform or plainclothes also ride along the most dangerous stretches of the route. Bus driver Lopez, however, confronts daily fears of "not returning home alive," as he told AFP. Many drivers have left their jobs because of the risk.

Drivers and passengers alike complain that the measures are insufficient and that politicians are not keeping their promises. "There is no security anywhere," 70-year-old Maruja Castillo told AFP. "All the candidates say what the people want to hear, but whether they'll actually deliver on their promises is another story," said another passenger, 49-year-old Victoria Perez.