Peru’s New Drug Chief: Country “Let Down Its Guard” in Eradication

President Ollanta Humala  met with Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday and called for Spanish companies to boost investments in Peru, newspaper El Comercio reported.

Humala also had a brief private meeting with King Juan Carlos, who later hosted a dinner at the Palacio Real for the Humalas and the Peruvian delegation, which included Foreign Affairs minister Rafael Roncagiolo.

In his first official visit to Spain, Humala also backed a controversial plan announced by Rajoy, who took office last month, to cut Spain’s budget deficit.

“All investments that Spanish companies do are fundamental to generate Read more…

Peru and Colombia agreed Wednesday to take joint actions to combat organized crime on their porous border region, state news agency Andina reported.

The agreement was announced by Peruvian Defense Minister Alberto Otarola and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Carlos Pinzon, in Bogota.

Otarola said the Andean countries agreed to work together along their Amazonian border to combat drug trafficking, illegal mining and logging, human trafficking and the Read more…

Alan Garcia, Peru’s two-time president, came out hard Tuesday against allowing the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, known as Movadef, from registering as a political party.

Movadef has close links with the Shining Path, the Maoist-inspired insurgency that launched a bloody battle against the state during the 1980s and 1990s. The conflict led to some 70,000 deaths, with about 54 percent caused by the Shining Path, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Today, the Shining Path is a shadow of its former self, with little of its ideology and none of its original cadres intact. It reached its peak during the late 1980s, when Read more…

About 200 Haitians in south-eastern Peru are being held back from crossing over to Brazil where a number of their fellow countrymen have migrated in recent weeks to seek jobs, according to newspaper El Comercio.

International media reported earlier this month that around 5,000 Haitians had entered Brazil since the devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean country in 2010. According to the reports, the Haitians often arrived in Ecuador before going to Peru where they would then enter Brazil.

Authorities in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, had lax immigration Read more…

Education Minister Patricia Salas said Monday that in 2013 the government may begin to include information in school curricula from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report on Peru’s bloody 1980-2000 internal conflict, newspaper El Comercio reported.

Salas said the violence perpetrated by the Maoist Shining Path insurgency is part of the country’s contemporary history, which should be known by all students.

“We need children to know history, so it is not repeated again,” Salas said. “That means the formation of citizen values, it means deepening the capacity for dialogue, to learn mutual respect, the rule of law, and those aspects are part of the current teaching agenda in Peru and we are going to strengthen them.”

Salas said that “all sources of information” on the conflict will be considered for Read more…

Peru’s government on Friday reiterated its support of Argentina in its longtime dispute with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some 300 miles from the South American nation.

Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Roncagliolo said, however, that it is necessary for both countries to negotiate a solution to their conflict within Read more…

Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal held talks with gold miner Minera Yanacocha about a job offer in mid-2011, only months before his appointment to the Cabinet, according to a report by IDL-Reporteros.

Pulgar-Vidal took over the ministry in early December, after protests against Yanacocha’s $4.8 billion Minas Conga project led President Ollanta Humala to reshuffle his cabinet. The cabinet change came only five months into Humala’s term, and is seen by many analysts as a sign the President Read more…

The Andean Development Corporation, CAF, is interested in providing some of the financing for the Southern Andean Gas Pipeline, which will be operated by Kuntur Transportadora de Gas, owned by Odebrecht of Brazil and Conduit Capital Partners of New York.

CAF’s representative in Peru, Ricardo Campins, said the Ministry of Economy and Finance has asked the regional organization to be the financial advisor of state-owned Petroperu in the project.

Petroperu is seeking a minority stake in the pipeline, which has been declared of national interest by parliament due to its potential development boost for Read more…

Peruvian lawmakers from across the political spectrum said they will approve a bill that would prevent political movements with links to insurgents and other violent groups from becoming registered political parties and participating in local and national elections.

Congressman Yehude Simon of the center-right Alianza por el Gran Cambio alliance said that he will ask the president of parliament to include the bill in the next session.

“If there is a law it has to be approved immediately,” state news agency Andina reported Simon as saying.

Legislator Yohny Lescano of the center Alianza Parlamentaria group said he expects the bill would be approved unanimously, while Alejandro Aguinaga, of Fujimori’s Fuerza 2011 Read more…

Sales at Peruvian malls are expected to rise about 12 percent this year to $4.7 billion from $4.2 billion in 2011, according to the head of the Peruvian association of malls (ACCEP), Gonzalo Anzola.

“The projection for growth for malls is really soaring and we calculate that in two or threeyears we should pass from 45 to 80 or 100 malls in Lima and the provinces,” daily Peru.21 reported Anzola saying.

In 2000, there were seven malls in Peru, with six of them located in the capital, Read more…