The Plenary Session of the Peruvian Congress approved a bill that seeks to strengthen the powers of the Armed Forces “in their role in the fight against illegal fishing in the Peruvian sea.” With 100 votes in favor and two abstentions, the proposal was exempt from the second vote this Thursday, making it ready to be eventually promulgated by the national Executive, Congress states in a statement.
The initiative was proposed by the congressman and former Commander General of the Navy, José Cueto, and proposes modifications to legislative decree 1147 of 2012, which regulates the work of the National Maritime Authority (Dcapi) on the activities carried out in the aquatic environment, vessels in general and the operations or services they provide.
According to the president of the National Defense Commission, Adriana Tudela Gutiérrez, who was in charge of its support, the project is important because it fills a legal gap in the current legislation. Among the powers of Dicapi is to repress illicit activities in the aquatic environment, exercising the role of maritime, river and lake police. However, decree 1147 does not establish what procedures it must carry out to carry out its work.
“The purpose is to combat, for example, problems such as illegal fishing and promote the detection of foreign vessels in the Peruvian sea that do not have the corresponding authorizations,” said Tudela Gutiérrez. Specifically, the project proposes the “legitimate use of force in defense of life, society and the State”, and in accordance with the rules that establish how and when it should be used by the Armed Forces in national territory.
According to Cueto’s argument before Congress, for many years, Dicapi has exercised its maritime police functions through “lower-category regulations.” Therefore, it is proposed to “adapt the law that already exists” to give “legal coverage” to the entire Dicapi so that it uses its weapons in all difficult situations that may arise at sea. “It’s not beyond that,” he says.
Illegal fishing
According to a report from the newspaper El Comercio, the irregular entry of fishing vessels into Peru is harming artisanal fishermen, mainly dedicated to the giant squid or squid business, considered the main fishing resource for human consumption in that country. According to complaints, more than 300 boats have entered the Peruvian sea irregularly and without the satellite control system activated, which prevents it from being possible to verify whether they carry out illegal fishing activities.
Last month, the National Artisanal Fisheries Society of Peru (Sonapescal) denounced the shortage of squid “because Peruvian authorities allow Chinese fleets to operate without being monitored.” For months, fishermen’s organizations have claimed that illegal fishing is destroying their sources of income.
Recently, the Ministry of Production announced that inspection of all foreign vessels in the territorial sea would be intensified using Navy satellites. Likewise, he said that the squid fishing crisis is due to natural causes, due to the limited availability of the resource in the Pacific, and not due to the presence of Chinese vessels.
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