Overview
- Regional officials say 16 schools in Lima Metropolitana have been extorted so far in the current period, following about 35 reported cases across 2025.
- Criminal groups use threats, intimidating phone calls, surveillance (reglajes) and demands for illicit 'cupos' aimed at school directors to extract payments from both public and private schools.
- Education authorities report a rise in internal violence inside schools that now includes drug use, gang activity and cases where criminal networks try to recruit or use students.
- The Dirección Regional de Educación de Lima Metropolitana (DRELM) is implementing a Plan Integral de Seguridad Escolar that deploys Grupo Terna undercover operations, assigns police 'promoters' to schools, strengthens school protection brigades and allows one‑week suspensions to shift classes online when risk is imminent.
- Officials warn that limited resources hamper a full response: only 73 of 2,032 metropolitan schools have interlinked CCTV, so authorities are grouping schools into networks of 10–20 to concentrate monitoring and expect continued disruption to in‑person learning and increased strain on families and school staff.