Parental child abduction within Peru: what counts as a crime and where do you report it?

What article 147 of the Penal Code says

Child abduction by a relative (sustracción de menor) sits in the Penal Code chapter on offenses against parental authority (patria potestad). The current text comes from Ley 28760 of 2006:

“El que, mediando relación parental, sustrae a un menor de edad o rehúsa entregarlo a quien ejerce la patria potestad, será reprimido con pena privativa de libertad no mayor de dos años. La misma pena se aplicará al padre o la madre u otros ascendientes, aún cuando aquellos no hayan sido excluidos judicialmente de la patria potestad.”

(Whoever, within a family relationship, takes a minor or refuses to hand the minor to the person holding parental authority faces a prison term of no more than two years. The same penalty applies to the father, the mother or other ascendants, even if a court has not removed their parental authority.)

Piece by piece:

• Who commits it. Someone with a family relationship to the child. The second paragraph is explicit: the father, the mother, and other ascendants such as grandparents. A parent who also holds parental authority is not excluded.
• Two acts. One is taking the child. The other is refusing to hand the child back to whoever holds parental authority. The second needs no violence and no travel. Not returning the child is enough.
• Who it protects. “Quien ejerce la patria potestad”, the person holding parental authority. The article does not use the word tenencia (custody).
• The penalty. A prison term of no more than two years.

The child does not have to leave the country

Article 147 says nothing about borders. A parent who keeps the child after a visit, in the same city, can fall within it. If the child has already left Peru, or you fear they will, there is also a separate international procedure: see international child abduction.

What the article does not settle

After a separation, both parents usually keep parental authority, while one has custody or they share it. Article 147 protects “quien ejerce la patria potestad”, and in that case that is both parents. We did not review court rulings, so we cannot tell you how judges and prosecutors apply the article today when the parent who keeps the child also holds parental authority. What helps in any case is having in writing who has custody and what the visitation schedule is: a judgment or a conciliation record. On who keeps parental authority, read parental authority after separation.

Where to report it

At a police station (comisaría). The Criminal Procedure Code says what the police do with your report:

“La Policía Nacional del Perú inicia los actos de investigación comunicando de forma inmediata al Fiscal cuando tenga conocimiento de la sospecha de la comisión de un hecho que reviste los caracteres de delito por denuncia de los agraviados o mediante disposición fiscal.”

(The police open the investigation, notifying the prosecutor at once, when they learn of a suspected crime through the victim’s report or a prosecutor’s order.)

Article 67 adds that the police must “tomar conocimiento de los delitos y comunicar inmediatamente al Fiscal” (take notice of crimes and tell the prosecutor immediately) and carry out urgent steps. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also has an online reporting portal, in Spanish.

Always ask for a copy of your report. Bring the child’s birth certificate, your ID and, if you have it, the order or record on custody and visitation.

The family-court route runs alongside

A criminal report aims to punish the conduct. It does not decide where the child lives. The family judge decides that.

If a judge already set a visitation schedule and it is not being followed, article 91 of the Children and Adolescents Code says:

“El incumplimiento del Régimen de Visitas establecido judicialmente dará lugar a los apremios de ley y en caso de resistencia podrá originar la variación de la Tenencia. La solicitud de variación deberá tramitarse como una nueva acción ante el Juez que conoció del primer proceso.”

(Breaching a court-ordered visitation schedule leads to the enforcement measures the law provides, and continued resistance can lead to a change of custody. The request is a new action before the judge who handled the first case.)

Article 82, rewritten by Ley 31590, says that when reviewing custody the judge will consider whether the parent caring for the child has engaged in conduct such as “no permitir de manera injustificada la relación entre los hijos y el otro padre” (unjustifiably blocking the relationship between the children and the other parent) or “no respetar los acuerdos judiciales o conciliaciones extrajudiciales sobre el régimen de visitas” (not respecting court or out-of-court agreements on visitation).

If no judge has set anything yet, the first family-court step is to ask for custody. See child custody and visitation.

If there is violence

If the child or you are in danger, do not wait to sort out paperwork: go to the police right away. If there is also family violence, read reporting family violence.

What this page does not cover

We did not review court rulings or plenary agreements on article 147, or how the limitation period is calculated. We do not cover other offenses against parental authority, a child kept by people with no family relationship to them, or the procedure for international cases.