Peru Governor Seeks Curb on Venezuelan Immigration After Killing

(Bloomberg) -- The governor of the most populous region in southern Peru called for a limit on the number of Venezuelans entering the country after two immigrants were implicated in the killing of a local couple.

Javier Navarro la Fuente and Susana Mendez, who ran a distillery and wine business in the Arequipa region, were killed at their home and police are searching for two Venezuelan employees who they believe to be responsible, local media reported. Arequipa Governor Elmer Caceres on Thursday urged the government and Congress to tighten immigration controls after the crime caused a public outcry.

“We don't have room for the massive arrival of Venezuelans here to the Arequipa region, and the country,” Caceres said at an event in Caraveli province where the couple lived, according to a video on the news website El Buho.

He went on to allege that Venezuelans have taken the jobs of 500,000 Peruvians and of harboring the HIV virus, La Republica reported. During his election campaign last year, Caceres promised controls on the numbers of Venezuelans entering Arequipa.

Caraveli Mayor Diego Montesinos, a friend of the couple, said during a speech that all Venezuelans should leave the province, though he later retracted the comment, the newspaper reported.

The influx of more than 700,000 immigrants from the crisis-racked Caribbean country has fueled social tensions in Peru's coastal capital Lima, where most have settled, as well as other regions of the Andean country less accustomed to receiving migrants. Venezuelans appear to be displacing Peruvian workers and putting wages under pressure in Lima, the central bank said in a report earlier this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Quigley in Lima at jquigley8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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