Former president of Peru’s Supreme Council of Military Justice arrested in Mexico

Mexican police arrested on Thursday the former president of Peru’s Supreme Council of Military Justice, Guido Guevara, who is wanted in Peru for allegations of embezzlement and criminal conspiracy, the office of Mexico’s Attorney General said in a press release. Read more…

Former Pucallpa mayor acquitted of murder for 2004 slaying of journalist

The former mayor of Peruvian frontier jungle town was acquitted Monday by a Lima court of charges that he ordered the 2004 murder of a radio journalist who had accused him on-air of corruption and cocaine trafficking, Radio Programas Peru reported.

Judge Jorge Aguinaga of Lima’s Superior Court said there was insufficient evidence to convict Luis Valdez of ordering the assassination of radio commentator Alberto Rivera. He added that the prosecutions witnesses provided contradictory testimony. Prosecutors had sought 20 years for Valdez. Read more…

Justice Ministry seeks better security following assassination of prison director

Peru’s vice-minister of justice said on Monday that his ministry will seek additional funding to provide better security for workers in the country’s penal system following the assassination of a prison director over the weekend.

“Some require this personal security,” Vice-Minister of Justice Gerard Castro told Radio Programas Peru. “It is through the Interior Ministry that we’ll find a solution because they provide an important number of officers from the National Police, who provide security to the directors of maximum security prisons.” Read more…

Peru’s Supreme Court turns down Fujimori’s appeal on 25 year sentence

Peru’ Supreme Court, in a decision made public Jan.3, has turned down the appeal made by ex-President Fujimori’s attorney to annul the conviction and 25-year prison sentence handed down April 7, 2009 by a special criminal court.

The decision dampens any hopes for a pardon sometime in the future on the grounds of ill health or age. According to Law 28760 enacted in 2006, a presidential pardon or amnesty cannot be granted to those convicted of kidnapping. Read more…

President Garcia criticizes former minister Allison arrested in Miami

President Alan García spoke strongly and extensively yesterday against Francis Allison, his former minister of Housing, who with his wife were taken into custody in Miami for not declaring the amount of cash they were carrying as they were leaving the U.S.  Read more…

Watch Those Thermals: Lima Police to Monitor Beaches from Paragliders

Police are to begin paragliding over Lima’s beaches next week as part of this year’s summer shore patrol program, according to the city’s chief of police, Oswaldo Hernandez. Read more…

Peru Court Studies Appeal of Fujimori Verdicts

Peru’s Supreme Court began today to evaluate ex-president Alberto Fujimori’s appeal to annul the verdicts handed down to him earlier this year, for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta murders, and in the corruption and kidnapping trial.

Fujimori’s attorney, César Nakasaki, is requesting to annul the 25 year sentence given to Fujimori in April this year, for sanctioning a paramilitary death squad that killed 25 people in two notorious massacres during the first two years of his 10-year authoritarian rule. Read more…

Peru’s Fujimori accepts charges, effectively avoids retelling of crimes

At the opening of his fourth trial on Monday, Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori accepted the charges of telephone espionage, bribery of congress members, and illegal “buying” of news media carried out during his 1990-2000 administration.

By accepting the charges, Fujimori has guaranteed that the trial will be brief –a verdict is to be handed down this Wednesday, only two days after the first hearing instead of maybe a year from now. More importantly, he effectively avoids a parade of more than 60 witnesses that would testify to the charges. Read more…

Peru police seize 4 tons of liquid cocaine concealed in 8,000 cans of artichoke

Peru police seized four tons of high-quality liquid cocaine concealed in 8,000 cans of artichoke in Peru’s Callao port, daily El Comercio reported on Tuesday.

The four tons of cocaine were destined for Spain.

No additional details were released by Peru’s police drug enforcement unit, or Dirandro, as additional drug busts and arrests are planned.

Peru was, until 1996, the world’s largest coca leaf producer, and is now the world’s second largest producer of coca leaf, though it still lags behind Colombia.

Peru slashed its production by 70 percent between 1995 and 2001 primarily because of low coca prices, interdiction, forced eradication of coca fields and programs that encourage farmers to grow alternative crops.

But by 2002, the number of hectares used to illegally grow coca in Peru increased as efforts to eradicate the crop in Colombia forced production southward.

This can be explained, in part, by the balloon effect, or the drug fields’ tendency to shift elsewhere and sometimes to smaller and harder-to-reach plots in response to local eradication campaigns, and the fact that for farmers, the coca harvest provides more money than any other crop: up to five times as much can be earned for a kilogram of coca than for a kilogram of coffee.

In June 2008, a study conducted by Devida and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicated that coca crops had increased by 4.5 percent in 2007 and that approximately 92 percent of Peruvian coca production is destined for the fabrication of cocaine paste and cocaine hydrochloride.

Two dead and four injured during clash over mining project in Cajamarca

Two people – including an 18-month old child – died Tuesday when a clash erupted over a planned but unwanted mining project in the northern highland town of Vista Alegre, located in the southern department of Arequipa, reported daily Peru21.

Around noon on Tuesday, various Vista Alegre residents opposed to the mining project and who had previously threatened to burn the firm’s equipment entered a building where Consolidada de Hualgayoc Mining Co. representatives and police were having lunch. A violent confrontation broke out, leaving two dead.

José Mori Hoyos, 19, and an 18-month old child were shot dead, and four other people injured, reported daily Peru21.

According to local residents, the mining project – which they have opposed since 2006 – will negatively affect small-scale agriculture in the area, and generate considerable damage to the environment.

Next Page »