Charter companies halt fly overs of Nazca lines to protest government-ordered decomission of older planes

Charter plane companies that provide flights over Peru’s famous Nazca lines halted operations on Tuesday to protest a new government initiative to decommission some small planes in response to a spate of fatal accidents and close calls.

The strike has affected 350 tourists and is resulting in loses of $70 million per day to Peru’s tourism industry, state news agency Andina reported the president of Nazca’s chamber of commerce, Max Benavides, as saying.

“The strike is rejected among the people. Rather than discuss or deal with their complaints through the corresponding channels, these airline companies have opted for the easy path and are affecting the image of Nazca,” Benavides said.

The regulations announced by Transportation and Communications Minister Enrique Cornejo came after a small plane crashed during a fly over of the Nazca lines, killing six tourists and the pilot. Read more…

Puno residents protest Inambari hydroelectric project

Conditions in Peru’s southern Puno department are reportedly returning to normal as a 48-hour protest against a multi-billion dollar hydroelectric project winds down on Friday, according to state-run news agency Andina.

More than 600 people from the district of San Gabán arrived in the city of Puno on Thursday to protest the construction of the Inambari dam. The protestors blocked highways, while business owners and schools shut down as a precaution against outbreaks of violence, the Coordinadora Nacional del Radio reported.

The location of the Inambari dam is planned along the border region of the Puno, Cusco, and Madre de Dios departments. It is Peru’s largest hydroelectric project and the fifth largest in Latin America. The concession holder, Brazilian consortium Egasur, is expected to invest $4 billion in the project, which will have an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

However, the project is also expected to have serious environmental and social impacts. The dam will flood around 150 square miles of land, including parts of the Transoceanic highway, and threaten the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. It is also expected to displace more than 3,200 people from San Gabán.

Energy and Mines Minister Pedro Sánchez told daily La República that the government wants to relocate that population to urban centers in the region.

Most of the energy the dam will produce is expected to be exported to Brazil.

Seven killed by flooding in Cusco region

Seven people were killed Wednesday when heavy rainfall flooded the Quitamayo river in Pisac, a town located in the Sacred Valley in Peru’s southern Cusco department.

According to Radio Programas Peru, the people were employed by Construyendo Peru, a State-run national program which provides temporary work for the unemployed living in poverty.

The employees were cleaning the river banks when the Quitamayo – a tributary of the Vilcanota river – flooded and washed them away. The regional president of Cusco, Hugo Gonzáles, said the supervisors were negligent and the workers lacked proper protection. Read more…

Foncodes invests $4.2 million in VRAE development projects in 2009

Peru’s state development cooperation fund, Foncodes, said Tuesday it invested more than 12 million soles, about $4.2 million dollars, last year in 55 social projects located in the area that covers the Apurímac and Ene river valley’s, known as the VRAE.

The area includes 31 districts in the departments of Ayacucho, Junin, Huancavelica and Cusco, and is one of the country’s top producers of coca leaf – the raw material used to make cocaine – where police and military personnel are routinely confronted by remnants of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that rely on drug trafficking for funding.

But Washington says the funding isn’t enough.

Read more…

One soldier killed and another wounded during attack on military base

Peru’s Joint Command of the Armed Forces says one soldier was killed and another wounded when Shining Path guerrillas attacked a military counter-terrorist base Friday morning in the country’s isolated Apurímac and Ene River Valleys, or VRAE.

According to Radio Programas Peru, the rebel group used long range weapons to attack the Bajo Somabeni base in Satipo province, located in the department of Junín and about nine hours east of Lima in Peru’s central Amazon region. Read more…

Government suspends Minera Afrodita’s activities in northern Peru

Peru’s government said Wednesday it has indefinitely suspended the exploration activities of a small copper and gold miner in the Cordillera del Cóndor, the dense cloud forest mountain range that straddles the Peru – Ecuador border.

Energy and mines regulator Osinergmin suspended Minera Afrodita’s operations after the mining company was unable to accredit its ownership of the concession rights where it is exploring, Energy and Mines minister Pedro Sánchez Gamarra said in a statement. Read more…

Study: Peru Amazon entering into second energy boom

A new study examining hydrocarbon activities in Peru’s Amazon rainforest over the past 40 years says the region is in the early stages of a second energy boom that could have major environmental and social impacts.

The study, published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, says 42 of the 52 active Amazon hydrocarbon concessions were awarded between 2005 and 2009.  State hydrocarbons promotion agency Perupetro reportedly signed 13 new Amazonian contracts in both 2005 and 2006, setting single year contract signing records. Read more…

Machu Picchu to reopen on April 1

Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Martín Pérez, said Tuesday Machu Picchu will reopen to tourists on Apr. 1, state news agency Andina reported.

Tourism activity to Machu Picchu was suspended last week following torrential rainfall, mudslides and flooding that blocked the railway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site and stranded some 2,000 tourists at Machu Picchu Pueblo – the town below the citadel. Read more…

Workers begin strike at three Buenaventura-owned mines

Workers at Peru’s largest publicly-traded precious metals company, Buenaventura, walked off the job at three of the company’s mines on Saturday.

The strike has stopped operations at the Uchucchacua silver mine, located about 164 miles from Lima in Oyón province, the Orcopampa gold mine in Peru’s southern Arequipa department, and the Antapite mine, a gold producer in the department of Huancavelica, daily Gestión reported. Read more…

Tourism Ministry announces campaign with private sector to promote tourism in Cusco

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism announced a campaign starting today to promote tourism in Cusco by providing tourists a 50 percent discount on flights, hotels and tourism packages.

The “Cusco Pone” campaign is aimed at increasing tourism to the former Inca capital and surrounding attractions until repairs to the railway to Machu Picchu are completed, the ministry said in a statement. Read more…

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