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Archive for February, 2008
Controversy over education law intensifies
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Controversy over a new law prohibiting public schools from hiring teachers who did not finish in the top third of their class during their studies has intensified, with Peru’s Education Minister threatening criminal charges against many of the country’s regional presidents who say the law is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
In an attempt to improve Peru’s ailing public school system, the Education Ministry established through Supreme Decree 004 that applicants for public teaching positions are required to have completed their education degree within the top third of their class
“Peru needs to make a quantum leap forward in education and with mediocre people who finished last we aren’t going to take that step,” daily Correo reported Cabinet Chief Jorge Del Castillo saying.
The president of La Libertad Department, José Murgia, said his department will implement the law. “Our children deserve the best teachers,” he said. “Don’t we want the best teachers for our children?”
However, 17 other regional presidents have argued the law is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Some say they will not implement it. (more…)
Judge rejects prosecutor’s appeal to avoid transfer where she says her life is in danger
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008A state prosecutor fighting reassignment to a jungle post for fear of reprisals from one of Peru’s most notorious drug barons has suffered another legal setback.
Judge Teresa Jara García rejected a habeas corpus appeal by prosecutor Luz Loayza against Attorney General Adelaida Bolívar and members of Supreme Court of Prosecutors, according to daily El Comercio.
Loayza was appealing orders from the attorney general and the Supreme Court that she return to her post in the jungle city of Iquitos, where Loayza says her life would be in danger jailed cocaine kingpin Fernando Zevallos. Jara said she made the decision last Friday however would not provide more information. (more…)
Retired military major begins civil trial in U.S. for Peru massacre
Monday, February 11th, 2008A retired Peruvian major has begun a civil trial in the United States for his alleged role in the 1985 massacre of 72 peasants in a remote Andean village during Peru’s internal conflict with leftist guerrillas. Major Telmo Hurtado is facing a lawsuit brought against him by the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability, CAJ, in a U.S. Federal Court in Miami.
Hurtado is accused of carrying out the killings under the orders of General Wilfredo Mori Orzo. The massacre occured on Aug. 14, 1985 in the village of Accomarca, located 240 miles southeast of Lima in Ayacucho Department, daily La República reported.
All the victims were children, village elders and Indian women, who were raped before being killed. The young men had fled the village, which the military suspected of cooperating with the Shining Path insurgency during their campaign to overthrow the government and install a communist state. (more…)
Peruvian civil defense rushes aid to thousands hit by heavy rains and flooding
Monday, February 11th, 2008The National Institute for Civil Defense, Indeci, has provided more than 108 tons of goods to help some 45,000 people in Peru as torrential rains continue to cause havoc throughout the country.
About half way through the rainy season, the storms have caused floods and landslides, or “huaycos” as they are known in Peru, that have blocked highways and left thousands of people temporarily isolated in the country’s Andes and jungle regions.
The head of Indeci, Luis Palomino, said almost all departments have been affected. “The only departments that did not have major problems in January are Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Ancash and Lima. But almost the entire country has suffered consequences from the rains, floods and overflow,” daily La República quoted Palomino saying. (more…)
Energy Minister to renegotiate part of energy contract with international consortium
Friday, February 8th, 2008Energy Minister Juan Valdivia announced a plan to renegotiate parts of an energy contract that will export natural gas from the Camisea gas fields, located in Peru’s south-east Amazon basin and thought to hold some of the largest undeveloped gas reserves in South America. Valdivia said they will sit down with Peru LNG, the consortium responsible for the second phase of the natural gas export project, to negotiate terms that would allot part of the supply for Peru’s internal market, daily El Comercio reported.
The Camisea gas fields were originally thought to hold 10.86 trillion cubic feet, TCF, of natural gas. However in early January, the Pluspetrol oil company told Peruvian authorities the gas fields have about 20 percent more than those estimates, holding 13.40 TCF of natural gas. (more…)
HRW: Military hampers human rights investigations
Friday, February 8th, 2008A lack of justice for human rights violators during Peru’s 20-year armed conflict is a leading human rights concern in the Andean country, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. Despite the human rights trial of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, HRW’s 2008 World Report says most perpetrators of human rights abuses continue to evade justice.
HRW attributes the impunity to a lack of military cooperation with investigations of massacres and disappearances by the state from 1980 to 2000, when government forces fought Maoist Shining Path and MRTA guerrillas. “The military has often failed to provide information needed to identify potentially key witnesses who served in rural counterinsurgency bases during the conflict,” says HRW. “It has also declined to identify military officials known to witnesses only by their aliases.” (more…)
Pre-Inca religious complex confirmed in northern Peru
Friday, February 8th, 2008Authorities in northern Peru have confirmed the finding of a religious complex from the pre-Inca Vicús culture, known for producing unique ceramic and gold work from 100 BC to AD 400. With an area of 3,500 square-meters, the site was initially uncovered by construction workers on Jan. 22. Archaeologists from the National Culture Institute, INC, in Piura Department later confirmed the site’s authenticity, daily El Comercio reported.
The religious center includes two large structures surrounded by four smaller ones. Archeologists say the site was likely used for religious ceremonies or as a cemetery for Vicús elite. It is located in the Morrópon Province, in Piura Department. (more…)
120 Peruvian police removed from cocaine producing region
Friday, February 8th, 2008The inspector general of the National Police is removing 120 police officers from the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, VRAE, where about 30 percent of Peru’s coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine, is harvested.
Sixty of the officers are suspected of drug trafficking while another 27 are accused of corruption, daily La Republic quoted Inspector General Luis Henríquez Palacios saying. The other 33 officers are being removed because they were stationed in the VRAE for five to eight years, while regulations permit cycles of no more than three years in the area.
Henríquez told La República the 60 officers are suspected of using police weapons during their days off to seize cocaine from drug traffickers and resell it to competing cartels. The officers have reportedly been transferred to other posts pending an investigation. (more…)
Scientists create World’s first test-tube alpaca
Thursday, February 7th, 2008Scientists at the National Agrarian University have created the World’s first “test-tube” alpaca embryo in an attempt to protect the South American camelid’s biodiversity and improve its productivity by controlling reproduction. The three-year study was led by the Agrarian University’s Center for Investigation and Education on the Transfer of Embryos, Ciete, with support from Peru’s Agriculture Ministry and six other institutions, including the Canada’s Bioniche Life Sciences, daily El Comercio reported.
According to the daily, alpacas reproductive characteristics have limited other assisted reproductive technology like artificial insemination while in vitro fertilization, IVF, has proved to be an alternative to control reproduction.
IVF is the procedure where eggs from the female are fertilized by sperm from the male outside the female womb. “The next phase is the transfer of the embryos to the female recipient,” said the head of Ciete, Giselle Gamarra. “With that we could have the first breed in vitro.” (more…)
