National Water March Arrives In Lima

Participants in a national water march, which is aimed mainly at rejecting Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga copper-gold project, began to approach Lima on Thursday, the head of the march’s organizing committee said.

Environmentalist Marco Arana told Ideeleradio that over 2,000 participants are beginning to arrive in Peru’s capital eight days after the march began in the northern region of Cajamarca.   The leaders of the march have planned a rally in the Plaza San Martin and will present a bill to Congress to protect the headwaters of  river basins and “highly vulnerable ecosystems.”

The participants have passed through Cajamarca, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Read more…

Huancavelica Govt Declares Emergency Due To Heavy Rains

A 60-day emergency was declared in Peru’s central-south Huancavelica region on Wednesday, due to the damages caused by intense rains and flooding, state news agency Andina reported.

Huancavelica’s Regional President, Maciste Diaz, said that 8 million soles (almost $3 million) will be available to the region to deal with the damage.

Diaz said that flooding of the Acobambilla river has affected 80 families.

“The river that crosses the city [of Huancavelica] flooded and caused 80 houses… Read more…

Garcia-Belaunde: Peru Unlikely To Back Argentina Again In Falkland Dispute

Peru’s former Foreign Affairs minister, Jose Antonio Garcia-Belaunde, says it is unlikely that Peru would back Argentina if there were a new conflict with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, newspaper El Comercio reported.

Garcia-Belaunde’s comments come a couple of weeks after his successor, Rafael Roncagiolo, has said that Peru supports Argentina’s claim to sovereignty of the islands, following Britain’s protest against Mercosur, which has closed ports in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay to ships flying the Falklands flag.

The UK has had control over the Falkland Islands since the 19th century, although Read more…

INPE Receives 32 Million Soles To Update Prisons

Peru’s government has transferred 32 million soles (almost $12 million) to the National Penitentiary Institute, INPE, for maintenance in five of the country’s prisons, government news agency Andina said.

The funds will be used to buy new vehicles, ammunition, a video surveillance system, among others, Andina said.

INPE officials have said that body scanners are needed as some prohibited objects, such as cameras and cell phones, can easily pass through traditional metal Read more…

Scotiabank: Private Sector Investments To Rise 8% In 2012

Private sector investments in Peru are expected to grow eight percent in 2012 amid uncertainty in the global economy, Scotiabank Peru said, according to state news agency Andina.

Scotiabank said that companies are planning “relatively aggressive” investment plans in 2012 and 2013 in a number of sectors, including retail, banks, construction and real estate, as well as mining and hydrocarbons.

Scotiabank said that while social conflicts could affect some mining investment plans, it does not seem to be affecting the sector in general. The latest project to be Read more…

Environmentalists Begin National Water March

Environmentalists and civil society groups in three Peruvian regions began on Wednesday a national water march, aimed mainly at rejecting Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga project.  The marchers plan to converge in Lima by next week.

In Cajamarca region, where Conga is located, about 500 people began the march at the Cortada lake, Ideeleradio reported.

Supporters of the march also participated in Peru’s southern Arequipa region, which has also seen a number of conflicts over plans by mining companies to use Read more…

Peru Declares Emergency In Ica Following Quake

Peru’s government on Thursday declared an emergency in the country’s southern Ica region due to the extensive damage caused by an earthquake earlier in the week, according to daily El Comercio.

Cabinet Chief Oscar Valdes said that the government will provide 2 million soles (approximately $750,000) for works in the area affected by the quake.

Valdes said the quake caused the collapse of Ica’s sewage system, and announced Read more…

Movadef Ends Attempt To Register As Political Party

The Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, known as Movadef, has given up on its attempts to register as a political party in Peru, local media reported.

Movadef is known to be the political arm of the Shining Path, an insurgency that terrorized Peru in the 1980s and 1990s as it sought to overthrow the state and implement its Maoist ideology. Some 70,000 people were killed in the conflict, with the Shining Path responsible for some 54%, a truth commission found.

The group’s effort to register as a political party has been widely rejected by Peru’s Read more…

Survival International Releases Photos Of Uncontacted Tribe

Survival International, the London-based indigenous rights group, has released up-close pictures of a family of the uncontacted Mashco-Piro tribe, known to live in the Manu National Park in in the Amazonian basin in south-east Peru.

The Mashco-Piro are one of about 100 uncontacted tribes in the world, according to Survival.

“Today’s photos are the most detailed sightings of uncontacted Indians ever recorded on camera,” Survival says.

Survival says sightings of the Mashco-Piro have increased in recent months. “Many Read more…

Back from Europe, Humala Visits Quake-Hit Ica

President Ollanta Humala, back from a trip to Europe, visited the city of Ica on Tuesday to inspect damage from a recent earthquake.

Early Monday morning, Ica was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The quake didn’t cause any major damage, but more than 100 people were injured, according to the government.

In August 2007,, the department of Ica was the site of a magnitude 8 earthquake that rocked the region, resulting in Read more…

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