Armored buses or a fight against the mafias? Lima unveils its new strategy against extortion

Lima’s answer to the violence targeting public transport now has the shape of an armored cabin. The municipal government and Emape presented the first bus equipped with steel panels and bulletproof windows, designed to protect drivers from possible gunfire by extortionists or hired gunmen.

The initial project covers 250 buses belonging to five public transport companies. The reinforced cabin focuses on the driver, one of the main targets in attacks against transport workers. During a test, one of the windows withstood five impacts without being pierced.

The buses will also receive surveillance cameras with a 180-degree field of view and artificial-intelligence tools. The municipality says the system uses 87 algorithms to identify faces and weapons, then transmit images in real time to the municipal security center through satellite internet.

The announcement reinforces a strategy the municipal administration had already outlined. In January, Renzo Reggiardo proposed monitoring cameras installed on buses from the municipal control center and using the information to prevent extortion and attacks. The new element is the physical barrier against gunfire.

But the measure also exposes its own limits. The vehicle does not have full-body armor, and the protection offered to passengers is not equivalent to that provided to the driver. Cameras may record an attack and the cabin may shield the driver, but neither measure by itself breaks up the gangs that demand protection payments or send gunmen. The plan comes after months of attacks and amid continuing investigations by prosecutors into shootings targeting buses and drivers in Lima and Callao.