Representatives of 13 of the 26 parties fighting to become mayor of Lima participated in the first municipal debate, organized by the National Elections Jury (JNE). This meeting began minutes after 8 p.m. and concluded around midnight: 11:48 p.m.
Before the controversy began, a minute of silence was observed for Susy Aponte (known as China Polo), candidate for regional governor of Áncash who was murdered by hitmen last Saturday while carrying out proselytizing activities in Caraz.
Unlike other controversies, Monday night’s was not marked by jabs and the majority of candidates chose to use their time to present their proposals, mainly on security and transportation.
And although Rafael Lopez Aliaga He did not participate in the first debate between the candidates for mayor of Lima (it is his turn this Tuesday), his opponents Carlos Bruce (We are Peru) and Daniel Urresti ( Podemos Peru ) launched harsh questions for the leader of Renovación Popular who seeks to return to the capital municipality by running as first councilor.
Bruce, located in second place in the last Datum simulation (10 percentage points behind “Porky”), recalled that four years ago, López Aliaga promised that Lima “was going to be a world power.” But the city “is worse in crime, traffic and cleanliness.” “And the person who made that promise to us resigned from office and left the municipality in ruins, we say clearly: Rafael López Aliaga, don’t lie to us anymore!” he added.
Before entering the National Library (San Borja), where the controversy took place, the current mayor of Surco considered that “the negative part” of the elections is that the National Election Jury (JNE) “still does not tell the people of Lima who are the candidates who could assume the mayoralty.”
“The people of Lima are blindfolded,” he stressed in reference to the fact that the JNE has not yet specified whether López Aliaga, if he wins the Renovation list, will be able or not to be sworn in as mayor of Lima, again.
In turn, Urresti maintained that López Aliaga left “a Lima where life is worthless, where a mother is killed from a common pot, where two anticucheras are charged for quota and where a teenager is shot on a sports slab.” He also questioned that the businessman has not completed his municipal management, as he initially promised.
“López Aliaga abandoned Lima to its fate, he used the city as a springboard to reach the Presidency, and that cost us the lives of 2,000 Lima residents. López Aliaga’s political ambition also killed them. We have time to save this city,” he said.
Bruce began his participation, in the second block, when he had to argue with former Prime Minister Yehude Simon (Tierra Verde), pointing out that he is not a person who has hatred and prejudices. And, for this reason, in his eventual administration, he stated that “we will not discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, political beliefs or their sex and sexual orientation.” “Enough of thuggish attitudes and insults to minorities,” he stressed.
The former Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation proposed the creation of the metropolitan police (which has also been an initiative of the current mayor of Lima, Renzo Reggiardo), made up of graduates of the Armed Forces, to pursue “common crimes”, such as robbery, theft and others, while the National Police will be left to combat extortion, contract killings and organized crime.
(Photo: JNE)
He also promised the construction of 10 thousand social houses, through the My Housing program; the installation of smart traffic lights and the implementation of five segregated corridors, like the Metropolitan.
Simon Munaro questioned Bruce’s initiative to create a metropolitan police, recalling that, in the 1980s, when the Republic Guard, the Civil Guard and the Peruvian Investigative Police (PIP) existed, “they faced each other and the criminals laughed.” “We are going to find the municipal police facing the National Police, and I am worried that someone who does not handle weapons, no matter how much training is given, will face crime that is like an army,” he said.
Urresti, who is running for mayor of Lima for the third time, indicated that if he is elected he will hire 100 three-person teams “that under the command of the National Police will capture 100 criminals” a day.
At that time, the former Minister of the Interior said that he didn’t give a damn about prison overcrowding, which is why he received a call for attention from the moderators, journalists Alicia Retto (Latina) and Omar Mariluz (América Multimedia and Canal N).
(Photo: JNE)
He also announced that he will rent 1,000 patrol cars that he will make available to the PNP and that he will build four mega police complexes, where flagrante delicto centers will operate.
“I am committed to closing the illegal markets, where they sell things stained with blood in the first six months (of my administration),” he expressed.
Sandro Caller, candidate of the Patriotic Party of Peru (PPP), reminded Urresti that he is running for mayor of Lima and not for logistics coordinator of the Ministry of the Interior.
“You rap well in general, but you are not prepared to be mayor of Lima, you should focus on the policies and functions of the municipality, not on being the (head of) logistics of the MININTER and the National Police,” Caller criticized during his controversy with the Podemos Peru candidate.
Among the candidates who participated in the first municipal debate are the lawyer Elio Riera (Alianza para el Progreso), the former congresswoman Susel Paredes ( Ahora Nación ) and the former mayor of Lima Ricardo Belmont (Obras). The first maintained that the capital “does not need another politician who comes to promise everything,” but rather an authority who knows the law and who knows “what it means to defend just causes.”
Riera has been a lawyer for Andrés Hurtado “Chibolín”, Judge Enma Benavides, among others.
Paredes highlighted that part of his citizen security team is made up of former members of the DIVIAC of the National Police and questioned Bruce for including Vicente Romero and Rosa Gutiérrez in his circle of trust, who were Ministers of the Interior and Health, respectively, in the government of Dina Boluarte (2022-2025). “It’s no longer Techito, it’s dinito,” he added.
Belmont, in his first intervention, said that there are young people whose spirits have aged and old people “who have a positive soul.” This after the candidate Samir Quispe, from Batalla Perú, opened the debate by quoting the politician, essayist and poet Manuel González Prada, when he said that “the old to the grave and the young to the work”, after the crisis of the war with Chile.
“I come to tell you that the youth who have not come to wait their turn have come to exercise, to get to work,” Quispe said.
The former mayor of Lima, as he did in the presidential debates at the beginning of the year, avoided detailing his proposals. “You know my vision of Lima, because you listen to me on social networks, Lima is a disaster, 30 years ago we left a master plan, works that were left in the air,” he expressed.
The candidate for the capital municipality for Together for Peru, Oswaldo Vargas, promised a “safe, fair, transparent, accountable Lima that provides opportunities to youth.”
He also said that, as mayor of Chosica, he has executed 100% of his budget for investments. But this was only achieved in 2025. Vargas attended the debate accompanied by José Domingo Pérez, former prosecutor of the Lava Jato special team who already advised Roberto Sánchez, former presidential candidate of Together for Peru, on legal issues.
In his final speech, Urresti apologized to the people of Lima “for the mistakes” he made four years ago and that caused him to lose the mayor of Lima by 30 thousand votes.
“And I ask for forgiveness, because if I had not made those mistakes, I would have been mayor of Lima and I would never have allowed the city to reach this situation of uncontrollable violence, where criminals do what they want and the life of a Lima citizen is worth nothing. Some say that I have moderated, it may be true, but the ones I am never going to moderate with are criminals. With them, I am the same crazy person as always,” he said.
Urresti maintained that on October 4 the city will not only elect a mayor, but “between ourselves we continue four more years dying from hired assassins and extortion, we vote for you to finally have a safe Lima.”
Bruce, in closing his speech, responded to Paredes’ criticism, recalling that whoever intends to be mayor of Lima “has to be a person who respects labor rights and the dignity of Peruvian women.”
“Someone who fired an employee just for being pregnant when she was a congressman does not deserve to be mayor of Lima,” she said.
The Somos Perú candidate criticized that the Municipality of Lima, during the López Aliaga administration, has spent more than S/120 million “bringing trains that are useless.”
“And they were brought in to support a presidential adventure that they lost. With that money we would have built the Canta Callao and Panamericana Norte road interchange. Whoever went into debt and abandoned the city cannot be the solution,” he said.
The debate ended at 11:50 pm, after three hours and 40 minutes.
