LIMA, Oct 15, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The new president of Peru, battling a surge in gang-related violence, on Tuesday named a retired hardline general as interior minister to oversee his "war against crime."

President Jose Jeri, 38, assumed the presidency last week after parliament voted to impeach unpopular leader Dina Boluarte.

Jeri swore in a new cabinet on Tuesday and named 61-year-old retired police general Vicente Tiburcio, who had previously led Peru's war on the Shining Path guerrilla group, as his interior minister.

Tiburcio was chosen for his experience in fighting "organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism," the government said in a statement.

Jeri had vowed to tackle a wave of extortion and murder that has plagued Peru in recent years.

On Tuesday, he warned gang leaders that "if they continue controlling our streets from the prisons, we will act with more determination. We will change everything that needs to be changed. You've been warned."

Jeri, who was the head of Congress until last week, appointed lawyer Ernesto Alvarez, a 64-year-old former Constitutional Court president, as the head of his 19-member cabinet, which includes four women.

Peru will hold scheduled presidential elections next year, when Boluarte's term would have ended.

She faces multiple investigations for corruption and abuse of power.

Peru has had seven presidents in the past nine years, three of whom were removed by Congress.