The Short Version
In short: Your LatAm expat and nomad daily guide for Monday, August 31. Peru is in emergency mode after a pre-dawn massacre in Trujillo left four dead and a mining businessman kidnapped — soldiers move to five maximum-security prisons while Lima and Callao remain under a state of emergency. Colombia’s president has ordered a new traffic code that would halve some fines and rein in the camera business. And markets reopen with the weekend fixings expiring: Colombia’s TRM of 3,202.79 gets its last day, while Chile’s dólar observado jumps to 929.18.
Peru answers a massacre with soldiers. Gunmen hit a mining businessman’s vehicle on Trujillo’s Avenida Húsares de Junín before dawn on Sunday, killing four and kidnapping Jens Marty Lara, 31. Police blame the extortion gangs Los Pulpos or La Jauría. The armed forces will take outside control of five maximum-security prisons to cut the phone networks that run extortion from inside — though the defence minister could not say when. Reported extortion cases have jumped from 4,761 in 2021 to more than 22,000 in 2024.
Colombia wants to halve your traffic fines. At Saturday’s Council of Ministers in Barranquilla, President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered a new traffic code: some fines cut by up to 50 percent, cheaper and longer-lasting licences, and speed cameras under tight control. A watchdog is investigating more than 7.5 million camera-issued fines, and 5.8 million unpaid ones could be cancelled. Nothing is law yet — the bill must pass Congress, and city halls, which collected about COP 11.9 trillion (roughly US$3.7 billion) in fines over two decades, will fight it.
