Overview
- Reporting this week found the provincial morgue in Satipo has been without a functioning refrigeration chamber for more than a year.
- Relatives of recent traffic victims said they repeatedly purchased bags of ice—one family reporting about 120 soles in costs—to slow decomposition while bodies awaited processing.
- Local witnesses and journalists reported that at least two recent cases left bodies in the morgue for about three days because necropsies could not be performed promptly.
- Staffing shortfalls compound the problem: sources say only one medical examiner is filling two authorized posts and necropsies are suspended on weekends, extending wait times.
- Families and community members are proposing public fundraising to buy a refrigeration unit after regional authorities offered no public fix and morgue workers allegedly refused donated ice following media exposure.