Overview
- An 82-year-old pedestrian, Carlos Alfredo Rodríguez Aguirre, died after being struck on Dec. 31 in José Luis Bustamante y Rivero; Venezuelan rider Ángel Marcano Rodríguez was detained and faces a Fiscalía probe for alleged involuntary manslaughter.
- Police reported dismantling 519 criminal gangs in 2025, saying 96% of detainees were Peruvian and about 4% were foreigners, mainly Venezuelan, with captures tied to groups identified as Los Orientales and Los Negritos.
- Traffic deaths reached 240 in 2025, the highest in recent years, which the regional command labeled a grave problem requiring stronger road-safety prevention.
- New Year operations in central Arequipa removed roughly 20 tonnes of trash and cleared intoxicated youths, while firefighters and city crews extinguished a deliberately set fire that damaged a 20-year-old pine on Avenida La Marina.
- Official data counted 7,744 deaths in the region in 2025, including 618 violent and 226 traffic-related, as the year also featured the Nov. 12 Camaná bus crash that killed 37 and mining-linked unrest in Caravelí with at least one protester dead.