LIMA, Peru – The Peruvian government has replaced its top police general and 29 more senior officers in a far-reaching overhaul of its police leadership, the government announced Oct. 9.

President Ollanta Humala ordered the discharge to retirement of Gen. Raúl Becerra Valverde and additional top brass.

Humala named Gen. Raúl Salazar as the new national police director and asked him to carry out a review of all police generals within two months.

“Corruption will have no place in this institution,” Gen. Salazar said at a ceremony where he assumed command Oct. 10 in Lima. “I’ll be drastic in that regard. We have to banish any act that stains the name of the police.”

Peru’s Interior Ministry is being restructured, as are its police academies.

[AFP, 09/10/2011; Larepublica.pe (Peru), 11/10/2011]