My Perception
I am in the habit of taking a walk in the morning. Somewhat to my surprise, I find that Surco is a very pleasant place for morning walks. The urban landscape provides endless novelty, and the frequent parks and tree lined boulevards make for a shady and restful journey. I do have to be very careful about the traffic, but otherwise I feel safe.
I feel safe because there are lots of ordinary people out on the sidewalks going about their business. Middle aged women going to the bakery to pick up rolls for breakfast. College students walking to the metro station. Men and women walking dogs. Joggers. Nine-year-old girls skating on the sidewalks. Old men walking with canes. People making deliveries. Couples walking to the local “chifa” (Chinese restaurant) for lunch. If all these people feel safe, well, I do too!
Daniel’s Perception
My husband Daniel’s perception is somewhat different. For the first few weeks of our visit, he was constantly warning me about “chorros” (thieves). “Roll up your car window! Chorros on motorcycles might reach into the car and grab your briefcase!” “Hide your cell phone in your pocket! Chorros might grab it!” “Did you lock all the doors?” “Chorros might enter the apartment!”
Fear of Crime
It’s not just Daniel. This is obviously a society that fears crime. The evidence is everywhere.
Fortified Houses
Residences are fortified.
This typical house presents the passer-by with a solid garage door and a locked entryway. The front wall is topped with a row of wrought iron spikes.
The next-door neighbor to the left goes one better, topping his front and side walls with an electrified fence.
The apartment house to the right has opted for a wrought iron gate with spikes.
Our Apartment
Daniel standing in front of the locked door to our apartment. You can see one of the padlocks above his head. There are two others behind him.
When we moved into our apartment, Daniel asked the family handyman James (pronounced High Mays in Spanish) to add two more padlocks to the entrance (for a total of 3) and locks to the two bedrooms and the living room/kitchenette.
The door to the building is also locked. You have to buzz to be let in.
So even if a burglar were to force entry into the building and break open this door, he would find that all three doors in the entrance hall were also locked.
The sign on the door announces “Entrance Prohibited to Unauthorized Persons”
Shops
Shops have iron gates that are shut and locked or metal shutters that are pulled down and fastened with a padlock when the shop is not open. Some shops keep their doors locked during business hours and only admit customers. When I got my haircut, the barber shop door was locked. When I rang the bell, the owner came to the door, looked me over and decided I was safe, unlocked the door for me and greeted me with a smile.
The vet across the street from our apartment has shutters that are pulled down and locked when the clinic is closed AND a metal gate that is kept locked even when the clinic is open and is unlocked when customers ring.
This vet offers day boarding for dogs. Every morning its delivery van goes out to pick up the dogs and every evening the dogs are returned to their owners.
Serenazgos
A distinctive green and blue Serenazgo patrol car, parked across the street from the house at El Rancho.
These patrol cars are common throughout Surco and other municipalities. They can be seen day and night, cruising the streets.
The Serenazgos are a municipal force of unarmed watchmen whose job it is to patrol the neighborhoods to discourage crimes and keep the inhabitants safe. There is a separate police force that deals with crimes actually committed. The police ride fancy pickup trucks and are armed.
Upscale Miraflores provides its Serenazgos with spiffy 4WD trucks. The Serenazgos of Surco must be content with Kia sedans.
Car Alarms
Car alarms are so ubiquitous and so prone to go off that one gradually learns to ignore them. This would seem to defeat their purpose, although perhaps the noise does scare off burglars.
Streetlights
I took this photo from my bedroom window at 4:30 in the morning. The street is so brightly lit that you could read a newspaper. This level of street lighting is common throughout the city.
The streetlights are amber rather than white. Amber provides better illumination in the fogs that are common in winter.
Note the flashing blue lights of a Serenazgo patrol car down the street.
Guards
Guards are ubiquitous. Department stores and supermarkets have guards at the entrances. The metro stations have guards by the ticket offices, the turnstiles, the bathrooms, and the platforms. There are guard stations scattered throughout the city. Some neighborhoods still hire private guards that sit in what look like phone booths, watching the goings-on of the neighborhood.
How People Dress
People are careful to not be obvious targets for thieves. Men generally don’t carry briefcases. People wear small backpacks (mochilas); not just students, but men and women. Backpacks are very difficult to snatch from someone wearing them. Women carry their purses with the straps over their shoulders. Men and women wear belt pouches called “canguros” (kangaroos) for holding money and credit cards. People generally don’t wear flashy or valuable jewelry.
Surveillance Cameras
Now that the technology is so cheap, there are surveillance cameras everywhere. The Serenazgos can monitor the streets via cameras. And many private businesses and homes have their own systems.
Daniel’s sister Kitiuska and her husband Romel have launched a startup company that is applying AI to surveillance camera video in real time to identify people with guns. Romel says this technology is already in use for large companies. He is hoping to scale it for use by small businesses. Properly designed and priced, there should be a large market. I’m sure he is right.
Admiration for Bukele
Bukele is the president of El Salvador. He is wildly popular throughout Latin America for his successful crackdown on the criminal gangs that terrorized his country for years. Many commentators in the United States have deplored the authoritarian excesses of the crackdown; for a more nuanced (and, in my opinion, accurate) take, see Megan McArdle’s opinion piece in the Washington Post.
One evening, Daniel’s cousin Johnathon came over to the apartment for drinks. Johnathon is a lawyer specializing in criminal law (he also is versed in real estate law). Daniel expressed approval of sending Peru’s criminals to jails in El Salvador. Johnathon commented that El Salvador’s crime problems were quite different from Peru’s. El Salvador was taken over by gangs; fortunately, Peru’s gang problem is much more minor and generally under control. Johnathon thought that Peru’s most significant problem was with what he called white collar crime, by which he meant corruption.
Reasons for Fear
Although many areas of Lima are reasonably safe if you take reasonable precautions, Lima is not as safe as comparable cities in Europe, Canada or the United States. There is certainly basis for the fear of crime.
Personal Experiences
Many people have personally experienced petty crime and some have experienced worse. And nearly everyone knows someone who has experienced crime.
My sister-in-law Renetta had her purse snatched while she was waiting for a taxi to take her home after shopping in an unfamiliar and not very safe part of Lima. She ran after the thieves, and her screams attracted the help of bystanders and the police. She was lucky – she was uninjured, and the police recovered her purse, The police told her that someone familiar with the neighborhood would not have waited for a taxi at that spot and indicated safer places for her to wait for taxis on her next visit. Needless to say, she now looks for bargains in safer neighborhoods.
Proximity to High Crime Areas
Lima is a dense and diverse city. Like San Francisco or New York City, safe neighborhoods are often within walking distance of unsafe neighborhoods. If you’re not paying attention, you can easily wander into an unsafe area. And it is easy for chorros from unsafe areas to get to your usually safe neighborhood.
News and Social Media
“If it bleeds, it leads” has long been a saying of local television news in the United States. It applies just as much to local television news in Peru. With the proliferation of surveillance cameras, dramatic crime video is easier than ever to come by. And then there’s social media…
A few days ago, I was waiting in Jonathan’s law office in downtown Miraflores watching the noon news on a television in the waiting room. Here is what I saw:
- A man who owned a small mattress store was shot in cold blood in broad daylight by a hired assassin. No explanation of why a mattress store owner would be the target of a hired assassin.
- A gang of teenagers assaulted and robbed a taxi driver.
- An elderly woman was hit by a car as she was crossing an intersection in the crosswalk. The driver stopped, then sped off as spectators gathered around the body crumpled on the street and called an ambulance.
- And on a lighter note, a bride had last minute second thoughts as she was standing at the altar. One video showed her running down the aisle of the church and out the front door. A surveillance camera outside the church caught her running down the sidewalk, her wedding gown flowing behind her. But a third video showed her dancing in a nightclub with the groom later that evening. So I guess this story had a happy ending.
Even if your neighborhood is safe, a constant diet of such videos reminds you that bad things can happen and you do need to be careful.
History
I think crime in Lima was worse when Daniel left the country 36 years ago. It was certainly worse when I visited as a tourist headed to Machu Picchu in 1984. In those dark days of terrorism, Lima was under curfew from midnight to 6:00 AM. Scared looking teenaged army soldiers with machine guns patrolled the streets during curfew hours.
These memories undoubtedly linger, even if conditions are much better now. Daniel seems more nervous about “chorros” than his relatives that live here – although everyone advises caution and common sense!