Archive for November, 2007
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Residents in southern Peru began a 24-hour protest today over the State’s torpid reconstruction efforts following the magnitude-8 earthquake on August 15, 2007. According to the Office of Police Operations (Ceopol) in Ica, protestors blocked kilometer 292 and 293 of the Pan-American South highway leading into Ica.
Protestors are calling for the immediate resignation of Southern Reconstruction Fund (FORSUR) president, Julio Favre, and rapid reconstruction of city infrastructure. The reconstruction effort has been tainted by alleged government mismanagement and corruption charges. (more…)
Posted in Corruption, Earthquakes | No Comments »
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
The ¨Revive El Mantaro¨project has found high levels of toxins in the Mantaro river basin, an important water source in Peru’s central Andes. ¨Revive El Mantaro¨ - a campaign launched in July 2006 by civil society groups in six affected provinces – took soil and water samples at over 50 locations along a 105-mile stretch of the Mantaro basin.
The study found a cesspool of cyanide, lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, coliform from human waste and nitrates from agrochemicals.
According to the study, river contamination increased as they got closer to mines, including the Missouri-based Doe Run poly-metallic smelter in the city of La Oroya. In the Anticona river, for instance, lead concentrations are180 times higher than the baseline – established by taking samples at river sources where water is purest - and World Health Oganization reference levels. In the San Juan river, cyanide concentrations are up to 35 times higher than the baseline level. (more…)
Posted in Environment, Health Care, Mining | No Comments »
Monday, November 19th, 2007
President Alan García plans to publicly identify hundreds of Peruvians who received pardons for terrorism convictions during Peru’s internal armed conflict — a move many say is a smoke screen to distract attention from mounting attacks by guerrillas in league with drug traffickers.
“I’m going to make public a list of 1,800 terrorists so people know exactly who their neighbors are and what they are doing,” García told reporters. “We can’t allow these ex-convicts to leave jail and begin causing problems in the streets by radicalizing protests and recreating semi-terrorist or terrorist groups. As much in the highlands as in some universities.”
But human rights groups say Garcia is only trying to stoke public opinion to obscure his government’s failure to stem the growing drug trade in Peru’s Amazon jungle, where remnants of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency have allied themselves with cocaine traffickers.
Recent roadside ambushes and a brazen attack on a police station by guerrillas claimed the lives of five officers. (more…)
Posted in Cocaine, Insurgency | No Comments »
Monday, November 12th, 2007
Radiocarbon tests announced on Nov. 10 date a multicolored mural excavated in northern Peru to 4,000-years-old. This makes it the oldest mural in the Americas and part of the late preceramic period – 3500 to 1800 B.C. The mural depicts a deer trapped under a multicolored net. Deer hunting was an ancient ritual among the areas pre-Columbian people. (more…)
Posted in Archaeology | No Comments »
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Peruvian President Alan García is celebrating after the United States House of Representatives approved a free trade agreement with Peru today. “Peru will have open access to the largest economy in the world. The United States, economically, is 150 times larger than Peru,” García told reporters. The 285-132 vote in favor of the accord was a major hurdle for the pact and means the FTA will become law if approved by the U.S. Senate.
Supporters say the agreement will help Peru’s economy expand by 10 percent in 2008 and 2009. “The FTA is a blow against poverty, against those that want an isolated Peru, against those that refuse investments and want to see povery continue,” said the president of Peru’s Congress, Luis Gonzales Posada. (more…)
Posted in Business, Environment, Mining, Regional Politics | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro rejected claims that a new insurgency is responsible for the attack on an Ocobamba police station in Peru’s southern Apurímac department. “The existence of a new terrorist group is pure speculation,” he told daily Peru.21. “The intelligence services have rejected this possibility.”
Officers at the station said 70 to 80 people attacked them on November 1, killing police Lt. Colonel Héctor Zegarra, and wounding three others. Authorities maintained the attack was orchestrated by drug traffickers trying to recuperate 180 pounds of cocaine paste confiscated days earlier. (more…)
Posted in Coca, Cocaine, Insurgency | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
Cuban Ambassador Luis Delfín Pérez will appear before a Peruvian congressional subcommittee to answer questions about the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) on November 13. Delfín Pérez will be followed by ambassadors from Nicaragua on November 20, Bolivia on November 27, and Venezuela on December 4.
ALBA’s activities have been viewed with suspicion in Peru because of its ties to the Venezuelan and Cuban governments. In July, Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of “unacceptable meddling” in Peru’s internal affairs after an ALBA office was inaugurated by local authorities in Juliaca, in Peru’s southern Department of Puno. Del Castillo alleged the purpose of the ALBA office was to “destabilize the nation.”
Chavez dismissed the allegations as a typical overreaction by “Latin American Oligarchs,” and added: “We are not going to get ourselves involved in any internal process with any nation, unless we have an alliance to do so, as we have with Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.” (more…)
Posted in Regional Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Australian rookie Stephanie Gilmore has been crowned champion at the Mancora Peru Classic today after a last-minute victory over seven-time ASP Women’s World Champion Layne Beachley.
Spinning around on a “walling lefthander” in the last minute, Gilmore scored an 8.10 out of a possible 10 to win the event. “I don’t know how I managed to get that last wave in the dying seconds. The ocean was dead flat, and then out of nowhere came this little wave and it was pretty special. I’m pretty proud of myself” says Gilmore. (more…)
Posted in Sports | No Comments »
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Peruvian surfing sensation Sofia Mulanovich advanced to the quarterfinals at the Mancora Peru Classic today after defeating French rookie Caroline Sarran. Mulanovich’s ¨explosive backhand approach¨ earned her the day’s high heat total of 14.67 out of 20. The former ASP Women’s World Champion is joined in the quarterfinals by Brazilian Silvana Lima and six Australians, including current ratings leader Stephanie Gilmore. (more…)
Posted in Sports | No Comments »
