Peru — Legal Help

The tourist police (POLTUR) maintain English-speaking units in Lima and Cusco and are the first stop for theft reports and disputes. If detained, request consular notification immediately, insist on a lawyer, and do not sign Spanish-language statements without a translator — signed statements are hard to walk back. Embassies provide lawyer lists and welfare visits but cannot interfere in proceedings; Peruvian pretrial detention can be long.

Because independent adult sex work is legal, an ordinary paid encounter between adults is not itself an offence — legal exposure comes from underage cases, exploitation-adjacent charges, and drugs, which Peruvian courts treat harshly.