Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Tuesday morning affirmed the government is working on building a safer country as he launched a campaign to disable stolen cell phones.
While acknowledging that much remains to be done regarding citizen security, the Head of State highlighted the initiative represents a significant step to combat cell phone theft, one of the most common offences in Peru.
Disabling stolen mobiles will also prevent extortion events carried out using these devices.
"Although this campaign officially kicks off today, alerting all people who may own a stolen cell phone will take a while […]," the President explained.
"We are working towards a safer Peru, and there are plenty of things to do," he added.
The statesman underscored the success of the campaign depends not only on citizens' and mobile phone operators’ cooperation, but also on the Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel).
All cell phones will now be registered under users' DNI (National Identity Document) number.
Joined by Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio and Peruvian National Police (PNP) Director-General Vicente Romero, the top official wished success to the campaign, launched under the slogan "stolen phone, disabled phone."
Lastly, Mr. Kuczynski assured the government is supporting law enforcement agents, favoring the construction of new precincts through the Works for Taxes mechanism.
(END) MVF/DHT/MVB