Peru's attorney general announced that all Mexicans entering the country will now need a visa, after nearly 100 Mexican nationals were investigated by Peru for links to organized crime in the last two years.
Attorney General Jose Antonio Pelaez Bardales revealed that 98 Mexicans had been investigated in the two-year period for alleged links to criminal organizations. As a result, he believes it necessary to introduce visa requirements to stem the flow of criminals entering the country.
Pelaez stressed that the measure would be taken "without prejudice to the decency and honesty shown by many of the Mexican citizens who come to Peru," reported El Comercio.
The 98 Mexicans represent 10 percent of the total number of people investigated for links to drug trafficking and organized crime during that period.
InSight Crime Analysis
Mexican criminal groups are likely building up an increased presence in Peru, which overtook Colombia in 2011 to become the biggest producer of cocaine in the world. Mexico's largest cartels are increasingly transnational and seek to move further down the supply chain to the source of drugs in order to gain a greater share of the profits.
There have been recent claims of an alliance between the Peruvian rebel group the Shining Path and Mexico's largest criminal organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, and reports of the Sinaloa's presence in the Andean nation stretch as far back as 2003.
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