The country of Peru declared a state of emergency following the violent murder of popular singer Paul Flores in Lima earlier this month.
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According to CBS News, the shocking incident occurred late Sunday, Mar. 16, when Flores was shot by hitmen who attacked a bus he was riding in with bandmates. The group had just left a concert outside of Lima when they encountered the hitmen.
Country officials stated the incident triggered the state of emergency. Peru’s culture ministry took to X (formerly Twitter) to confirm Paul Flores’ death. The ministry stated the singer of Armonía 10 had “won the hearts of thousands of Peruvians.”
Gustavo Adrianzen, head of the ministerial cabinet, posted on social media, “It has been ordered that a state of emergency be decreed throughout the province of Lima and the Constitutional province of Callao in the coming hours.”
Adrianzen then stated that troops would be deployed to support the national police. “In the fight against organized crime, all Peruvians must stand united,” he wrote. “Overcoming all our differences of any kind.”
The Armonía 10 Bandmates’ Representatives Revealed a Potential Motive For the Killing of Paul Flores
Representatives of the group revealed that the musicians had been threatened by a criminal gang that had attempted to extort money from them.
It was reported that extortion has become an alarming problem in various parts of Peru. Many have blamed criminal gangs such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which has operations in numerous Latin American countries.
The murder of Paul Flores comes just months after a journalist, who was reporting on Peru’s extortion epidemic, was shot dead, and two others were injured in a separate bomb attack on a prosecutor’s office that was investigating racketeering.
Local media outlets confirmed that since January 2025, more than 400 murders have been reported. Law enforcement received more than 14,000 extortion complaints during the first 10 months of 2024.