The head of Puno’s regional government, Hernán Fuentes, denied allegations that he illegally hired unqualified personnel with funds from the United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP. The news, which generated sharp reactions in Lima, was widely reported in Peru’s newspapers Wednesday.
Fuentes, who is being investigated for allegedly hiring government consultants that did not meet the […]

Peru President Alan Garcia faced nationwide mass protests Wednesday against his political and economic policies as thousands of Peruvians, including construction workers, teachers, miners and merchants went on strike, organized marches and blocked highways under the watchful eye of police and military.
The mostly peaceful demonstrations failed, however, to halt business as usual in the capital […]

The head of Peru’s military Joint Chiefs of staff said it would be a mistake to start eradication of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, in the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, VRAE, because of the social chaos it would cause among the majority of the poor inhabitants who eek out their living on […]

Peru President Alan Garcia enacted a legislative decree to declare a 60-day state of emergency in 11 of Peru’s 24 departments Thursday as temperatures in the Andes region continue to drop dramatically and claim the lives of residents.
As Peru remains in the grip of intense cold — meteorologists have registered temperatures dipping to -22°C, or […]

After 14 hours of intense negotiation, Presidential Cabinet Chief Jorge Del Castillo confirmed Thursday that the government and the Moqueguan authorities had reached an agreement to end the strike that paralyzed southern Peru for 9 days.
Details of the settlement were not immediately release. Del Castillo said Moquegua residents, who demanded a larger share of taxes […]

Thousands of protesters in the southern mining town of Moquegua have released a police general and 47 of his officers after holding them hostage for more than 24 hours. And while negotiations continue over their demand for a larger share of taxes paid to the government by Peru’s largest copper producer, Southern Peru, President Alan […]

Congress’ Constitutional Oversight Commission has voted to overturn a decree by President Alan Garcia that critics say was designed to snuff out political dissent by, among other things, granting soldiers and police freedom to use their firepower during protests without fear of prosecution for injuring or killing civilians.

Twenty-nine gold miners employed by Peruvian Cartagena Mining Group’s “Untuca” project in Peru’s southern Puno Department were being held against their will Tuesday for a fourth consecutive day by more than 300 local residents demanding jobs.
“We don’t know if they are alive or if they are receiving medical attention or food,” said Ernesto Bendezú, […]

President Alan Garcia lauded a report by the National Statistics Institute that showed Peru’s poverty rate dropped more than 5 percentage points in 2007. But he also warned Peruvians that the figures could be fleeting.
“Just as there can be hiccups of growth that later drop, there too can be hiccups of poverty reduction that later […]

Peru’s campesino and indigenous rights groups are in an uproar over a presidential decree they say is designed to strip them of their full rights to their communal lands for outside development.
President Alan Garcia signed into law the Legislative Decree Nº 1015 on Tuesday, without congressional approval, simplifying the process for private investors to obtain […]