Overview

• Law No. 32446, published in El Peruano, adds article 318-B to the Penal Code and mandates life imprisonment when extortion, sicariato, kidnapping, qualified homicide or aggravated robbery are executed with firearms or explosives and create terror.
• The measure was promulgated with the signatures of President Dina Boluarte and Prime Minister Eduardo Arana after a second congressional vote on September 3 that passed 83–27 with one abstention.
• The text covers munitions, military or civilian firearms, explosives or similar devices, and extends liability beyond material authors to organizers and intermediaries, with a separate scheme that contemplates minimum terms of 35 years and life for specified aggravating factors.
• Supporters in Congress presented the reform as a tool against escalating organized violence, citing recent dynamiting attacks in La Libertad as examples of crimes intended to sow fear.
• Penal specialists and civil-society voices call the law repetitive and ambiguous, and a technical critique flags the use of the conjunction “y” instead of “o” as a flaw that could hinder prosecutions without stronger investigative, prosecutorial and judicial capacity.