LIMA, Sept 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Peru, battling a wave of violent crime, said Wednesday it would build a prison for its most dangerous offenders on an island facing the capital Lima.

It would be erected on the same spot where a previous prison was left in ruins after troops killed 133 inmates in putting down a mutiny four decades ago.

Soldiers were called in to quell unrest by inmates belonging to the Maoist Shining Path rebel group at the former El Fronton prison located off the coast of Lima in June 1986.

On Wednesday, President Dina Boluarte said a new prison would be built on the island to "ensure that the most dangerous criminals are subjected to effective isolation."

Signing a contract for the construction of the new facility, she said it would hold 2,000 dangerous inmates in seclusion while also helping alleviate overcrowding in the country's 68 other prisons.

"This new facility will have completely restricted access, and in this way, we will deliver a decisive blow to those criminal organizations that operate from within prisons," Boluarte said.

The government said the prison would cost about $174 million and be ready by June 2026.

El Fronton is a small island of just over two hectares. In the 1980s, it became a detention center exclusively for members of Shining Path, considered a terrorist group by Lima.

A bloody 1980-2000 military campaign against the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebel groups killed 70,000 people, according to official data.