Archive for December, 2007
Friday, December 21st, 2007
Peru’s former health minister said yesterday that preliminary information from international health organizations points to weak immune systems as the cause of death in four people who received yellow fever immunizations in the southern Peruvian town of Ica in early October.
Carlos Vallejos told Agencia Andina “there seemed to be a sensibility problem on the part of the host, the immune systems were extremely handicapped in some of them. This created the condition for the unfortunate results.”
An investigation into the cause of deaths is being carried out by the World Health Organization, the Pan-American Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are scheduled to release the report in February 2008.
The Health Ministry planned on vaccinating 204,000 people in Ica, which was devastated by the magnitude-8 earthquake on Aug. 15. The vaccinations were donated by Brazil and put to use just before the October expiry date printed on the vial labels. A 73-year-old man and a 24-year-old mother of two were among the victims who suffered fatal bouts of fever and diarrhea after receiving the shots.
Posted in Health Care | No Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2007
South Korea has donated $100,000 to remove land mines from Cordillera del Cóndor on Peru’s northern border. The area was the center of the 1995 Cenepa war between Peru and Ecuador over 48-miles of unmarked territory in the Andean foothills. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates some 30,000 mines were laid during the conflict.
According to Peru’s Foreign Relations Ministry, the donation is a result of a campaign by Peru and Ecuador to secure financial support from the international community to demine the border.
The ministry says the donation will “permit the development of civil infrastructure that will benefit people in both countries, as well as the reintegration of extensive areas for productive activity.”
According to the Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines the remaining land mines are in sparsely populated areas, ¨but pose a significant threat to a number of indigenous communities in remote border zones.¨
A 1998 peace agreement signed in Brasilia ended the territorial dispute, one of the oldest in the western hemisphere.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2007
The U.S. Export-Import Bank, Ex-Im, approved a $250 million loan for the second phase of the Camisea gas project Friday, following the lead of the Inter-American Development Bank which brushed off environmental and social concerns by approving a $400 million loan.
The loan will partially fund a natural gas liquefaction plant and other infrastructure on the pacific coast that would turn Peru into an exporter of liquefied natural gas, with markets in Mexico and possibly Chile and the United States for regasification.
The $3.9 billion project, headed by Texas-based Hunt Oil, is expected to generate an average of $230 million a year in incremental royalties and $90 million in income tax revenue for the Peruvian government. It is one of Latin America’s key energy infrastructure projects.
In 2003, Ex-Im denied the Camisea a $200 million loan to finance the first phase of the energy project, a transportation component, citing environmental concerns. On Dec. 13, a delegation of human rights and environmental activists from Peru met with bank officials in Washington to persuade them that threats to the fragile jungle eco-system and its indigenous inhabitants still exist.
The World Bank is expected to announce its decision whether to finance the project in mid-January.
Posted in Business, Energy, Environment | No Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
In just the past six months, Peru’s Pastoruri glacier in the Cordillera Blanca mountains has receded into two quickly vanishing patches of ice.
The Cordillera Blanca mountain range — the largest and highest tropical glacier chain in the world — contained 723 square kilometers of glacial ice 1970, diminished in size to 611 square kilometers by 1977, and lost another 15.5 percent of its ice mass in the ensuing 27 years.
Now the glaciers are vanishing before our eyes. This should give pause to those who doubt or deny the onslaught of global warming.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted the following for Peru in its 4th Assessment Report (Compilation - Source: WWF):
“Glacial retreat has already reached critical conditions, with a 22 percent reduction of total glacial area over the past 35 years.
Highly strained impact of freshwater supplies from 2015-2025 (12 percent reduction in the coastal zone where more than half of the people live). Southern Peru has seen reduced precipitation over recent decades while north-west Peru has experienced an increase. Hydropower is vulnerable to large-scale and persistent rainfall anomalies due to El Niño and La Niña. (more…)
Posted in Environment | No Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Four new ministers were sworn in today by Peru President Alan García in a Cabinet shuffle intended to inject new energy into the government, incorporate independents, and begin moving ahead on some of the reforms and promises offered during the presidential campaign 18 months ago. Jorge del Castillo remains as cabinet chief.
The new ministers are Ántero Flores-Aráoz in Defense, Rosario Fernandez as Justice Minister, Mario Pasco to head the Labor Ministry, and Enrique Cornejo in Housing.
Before his appointment to Defense, Flores-Araoz served as Peru’s ambassador to the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. He is an independent, and was one of the leaders of the Social-Christian PPC party until his resignation earlier this year. He succeeds Allan Wagner, a career diplomat who is to head Peru’s defense mission to The Hague in the dispute with Chile over territorial waters in the Pacific. (more…)
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Scientists have dated the meteorite that smashed into southern Peru last September to 4.5 billion-years-old. According to the Geological Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, INGEMMET, the meteorite was formed around the same time as the sun, Earth and other planets in the solar system.
The Institutional Relations and Cooperation director at INGEMMET, Hernán Núñez del Prado, told daily El Comercio, “when Earth was formed, there was a collision of asteroids. The meteorite from Carancas is one of the pieces that came from the collision and was flying around in the solar system until its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Nuñez del Prado added that most meteorites have this type of origin, although some come from Mars or the moon.
The basketball-sized meteorite crashed near the town of Carancas, in Puno Department, on Sept. 15. It left a 13.5-meter wide crater which was declared a natural and cultural heritage site by Puno’s regional government.
According to Núñez del Prado, the Carancas meteorite is unique because of its accessibility. “Many meteorites fall into the sea or in other areas that are difficult to access.”
Some 500 meteorites hit Earth annually, but only five or six are recovered. Very few meteorites are large enough to make a crater.
Posted in Environment, Tourism | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Members of Peru’s anti drug police, DIRANDRO, seized a planeload of cocaine and firearms in the southern Madre de Dios department. Officials have not released the amount of the cocaine seized or the name of the Colombian man arrested in the operation. But according to Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro, the operation was “a big blow to international drug trafficking.”
“It was an impeccable operation headed by DIRANDRO. We didn’t let him leave with the drugs. The plane is in Madre de Dios in perfect condition. The Colombian man will bring new light and new information,” said Alva in a Radio Programas radio interview. (more…)
Posted in Coca, Cocaine, Criminal Justice | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori told state prosecutor Jose Antonio Peláez today that two laws passed during his administration inadvertently benefited members of the Colina group death squad, which was responsible for killing 25 people suspected of collaborating with the Shining Path insurgency.
Fujimori said the 1994 Cantuta law and 1995 Amnesty law were intended to stabilize Peru after 15 years of internal conflict. “I considered it necessary to look for a peaceful solution after 14 or 15 years of internal war,” said Fujimori. “They were part of a general plan by the government to lead Peru to peace.”
The Cantuta law allowed members of the Colina group to be prosecuted for the La Cantuta murders in a military court, where the head of the death squad, Major Santiago Martin Rivas, received a 20-year prison sentence.
A year later, he and the rest of Colina group were pardoned under a sweeping Amnesty law, which provided immunity for police officers, military personnel and civilians convicted or accused of human rights violations during the internal war. (more…)
Posted in Criminal Justice, Law, Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
The Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, approved a $400 million loan for Peru’s Camisea gas project today, brushing off appeals from environmentalists who insist it will do irreparable harm to the fragile jungle eco system and its indigenous inhabitants. The project consortium, headed by Texas-based Hunt Oil, will use the loan to begin construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant on Peru’s pacific coast. It will also create a marine terminal and a 253-mile, 34-inch, or about 86-centimeter, pipeline connecting the plant to the Transportadora de Gas del Peru pipeline.
According to the IDB, the project is expected to generate an average of $230 million a year in incremental royalties and $90 million in income tax revenue for the Peruvian government. At a total cost of $3.9 billion, the project is the biggest private investment in Peru’s history.
The Camisea gas fields are located in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon basin. It is the largest energy project in Peruvian history and known to hold some of the largest undeveloped gas reserves in South America. (more…)
Posted in Business, Energy | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Peru’s judicial disciplinary office, OCMA, began procedures against four judges from Ucayali’s Superior Court for irregularities during the murder trial of Luis Valdez Villacorta, the mayor of Coronel Portillo province. On Nov. 14 the judges acquitted Valdez of charges that he ordered the 2004 murder of radio commentator Alberto Rivera Fernández.
Superior Court judges Miriam Calmet Caynero, Juana Estela Tejada Segur, Leoncio Felipe Huamaní Mendoza and Pablo Ernest Lévano Veliz are under investigation for violating due process procedures.
The judges are also accused of violating article 266 of the Penal Code Procedures by holding nine sessions solely dedicated to the interrogation of witnesses.
Rivera was a regular critic of Valdez. On Apr. 20, 2004 Rivera told Agencia Peru that Valdez had well-known ties to drug traffickers. The following day Rivera was gunned down by hit men, allegedly on the orders of Valdez and ex-Judge Solio Ramírez Garay.
Attacks on journalists are common in Peru. According to the National Association of Journalists in Peru, ANP, there were 154 threats against journalists in 2006. Since 2004 three journalists have been murdered. ANP says the majority of the attacks were attributed to intolerance of public officials who were criticized by the journalists.
Posted in Criminal Justice | No Comments »
