Armed Forces will guard prisons under emergency: decree establishes outer perimeter

The Executive Branch has enabled the exceptional and temporary participation of the Armed Forces in external security actions for penitentiary establishments declared to be in a state of emergency. The measure was formalized through Legislative Decree No. 1742, published this Sunday, November 8, 2026, in the Official Gazette El Peruano, in the LEGAL NORMS section (pp. 4-7, record 2572852-1). The regulation was issued at the Government House on November 7 and is referred for reporting to the Senate.

The framework: a delegation of powers

The decree is issued under Law No. 32743, which delegated to the Executive Branch the power to legislate for ninety calendar days regarding citizen security and the El Niño Phenomenon. Its numeral 2.1.5 expressly authorizes the regulation of the participation of the Armed Forces in the external security of penitentiary establishments. The official justification is that the current framework—Legislative Decree No. 1095 and Legislative Decree No. 1186—regulates the employment and use of force, but not these specific actions.

The regulation arrives atop an already ongoing regime of exception. Supreme Decree No. 128-2026-PCM declared a state of emergency in high-danger prisons nationwide, later extended by Supreme Decree No. 148-2026-PCM. The decree mentions as included, among others, the establishments of:

• Trujillo Varones
• Cochamarca
• Miguel Castro Castro
• Ancón I
• Challapalca

To this is added the emergency of the National Penitentiary System and the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), declared by Supreme Decree No. 014-2024-JUS and extended by Supreme Decree No. 013-2026-JUS. The official preamble refers to the increase in the prison population linked to national and transnational criminal organizations, in a context of overcrowding, and the risk that criminal activities continue to be directed from inside the prisons.

Only the outer perimeter

Article 4 establishes the scope: the Armed Forces may execute external security actions when one or more penitentiary establishments are declared to be in a state of emergency, always in coordination with INPE and respecting the competencies of each entity. Article 3 sharply distinguishes internal security—the responsibility of INPE inside the prisons—from external security, which covers the perimeter, the watchtowers, and the adjacent exterior areas. It also specifies that a penitentiary emergency situation does not, by itself, enable extraordinary powers for internal order control or the use of force.

The use of force during these actions remains subject to Legislative Decree No. 1095 and its Regulations, approved by Supreme Decree No. 003-2020-DE.

Surveillance, drones, and jammers

Article 5 lists the authorized tasks, including:

• Installing security rings and protection devices on the outer perimeter and zones of influence.
• Executing surveillance, patrolling, and intelligence in the zones of influence and protecting approach routes, access roads, and critical points.
• Operating control posts and pre-entry screenings at access points, applicable to every person entering.
• Detecting, intercepting, or neutralizing unmanned aircraft and other unauthorized aerial devices.
• Installing and operating radio signal jammers and detectors, under coordination with the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
• Supporting the dismantling of unauthorized antennas and repeaters with the National Police of Peru.
• Providing support in the control and registration of entries for visitors, suppliers, and penitentiary personnel, as well as air and land transport for inmate transfers.
• Executing military actions in the face of external attacks, rescue attempts, or escapes.

The First Final Complementary Provision orders that, within five calendar days following the declaration, INPE shall delimit the penitentiary zones of influence using technical criteria, without expanding the authorized geographical scope. The Sole Modifying Complementary Provision adjusts Article 5 of Law No. 30740, regarding remotely piloted aircraft systems, to restrict overflights of prisons except by exceptional authorization.

Financing and publication

Article 7 establishes that implementation is financed through the budgets of the involved entities, without demanding additional resources from the Public Treasury. The Seventh Final Complementary Provision authorizes the Ministry of Defense to allocate the use of assets and equipment in favor of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights or INPE. Article 8 mandates publication on the Single Digital Platform of the Peruvian State and on the digital sites of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, and INPE on the same day as its release in the official gazette. The regulation was endorsed by the President of the Council of Ministers, Luis Fernando Galarreta Velarde, and the ministers Rafael Jorge Belaunde Llosa (Defense), César Augusto Astudillo Salcedo (Interior), and Ernesto Julio Álvarez Miranda (Justice and Human Rights), and bears the signature of President Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi.

The decree affects the routine of inmates, visitors, suppliers, and prison staff, as well as the neighbors of the maximum-security prisons, who will see military controls on the perimeter and access roads. For the Executive, this is about closing the legal loophole that prevented the Armed Forces from sustaining over time the external security tasks they were already providing in support of the National Police of Peru.

Source: Official Gazette El Peruano, No. 19624, Sunday, November 8, 2026, LEGAL NORMS, pp. 4-7 (official reference: 2572852-1).