COUNTRY NOTES: Downtown in The Lost Cities of the Amazon

The head of Peru’s tax agency Sunat, Tania Quispe, said the government plans to establish by June mechanisms to halt the supply of chemical inputs and machinery that are used by illegal gold miners, state news agency Andina reported.

“We are talking about May or June at the latest,” Quispe said. “We plan to pull out all the stops in the  regulation process.”

Quispe said that Sunat, which also governs the customs superintendency Sunad, plays an important role in the government’s efforts to stem illegal mining by detecting Read more…

Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in Peru have caused the deaths of 53 people over the past six months, according to the country’s National Civil Defense Institute, Indeci.

Since November, some 267,000 people have been affected by the rains, daily El Comercio reported.

The rains have affected all of Peru’s 25 regions, according to the report, in a rainy season that has continued beyond the usual November-March season, with losses recorded in urban and rural areas, Read more…

Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Jose Luis Silva said Thursday that Peru’s exports totaled $3.91 billion in March, which is 5 percent higher than the same month last year.

The increase in exports was thanks largely to a 14 percent rise in non-traditional exports, which includes non-metallic minerals, steel, metal-mechanics, and textiles.

Traditional exports, which include Peru’s important mineral shipments, rose 2 Read more…

A new poll by company GFK has found that national support for Newmont Mining’s massive Minas Conga gold project, located in Peru’s Cajamarca region, is increasing, daily El Comercio reported.

The poll of 1,400 people, conducted between April 19 and April 21, shows that 54 percent support the project, which is up 6 percent from March.

Opposition to the project is down 5 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll, Read more…

President Ollanta Humala has authorized officials from Peru’s Labor Ministry to start procedures to increase the minimum wage to 750 soles (approximately $285) a month, from the current rate of 675 soles.

The increase is part of a two-stage hike, for a total of 150 soles, that Humala promised during last year’s presidential campaign. The first hike to 675 soles from 600 soles was approved in 2011.

“Fulfilling my election promise, I want to communicate to you that I have given Read more…

President Ollanta Humala has reiterated his support for his cabinet chief, Oscar Valdes, as he rejected rumors that he could make changes to his cabinet anytime soon, newspaper Peru.21 reported.

“He has my support,” said Humala, during a lunch with Valdes at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Lima.

Peru.21 says that Humala told Valdes that he is not planning changes to his cabinet at least until July, and that he will coordinate any changes with him.  Traditionally, the Read more…

Felix Jimenez, President Ollanta Humala’s former top economic adviser, criticized the current administration for serving the country’s economic power groups, according to an interview on Ideeleradio.

Jimenez said that those who garnered the presidential votes nationwide last year are no longer the policy makers and, instead, those who lost the elections and who harshly criticized the Humala platform are the ones who are now governing.

Principal economics professor at the Catolica university and a former professor at the City University of New York and in Mexico, Jimenez was the architect of Read more…

Six international companies are interested in participating with Peru’s state-owned Petroperu to develop a petrochemical complex on the country’s southern coast, according to Petroperu’s general manager, Pedro Mendez.

“We are receiving visits from six companies worldwide that are very interested in talking with us about analyzing different areas of participation in the petrochemical complex,” Mendez said, according to state news agency Andina.

Petroperu already plans to work with Brazilian firm Braskem on the multi-billion Read more…

A group of left-wing political allies and former advisers to President Ollanta Humala, who broke with the government last year, have formed a new group, known as Ciudadanos por el Cambio, or Citizens for Change.

The group includes Humala’s former Premier, Salomon Lerner Ghitis, the former Environment minister Ricardo Giesecke, and the former Devida anti-drug chief, Ricardo Soberon. Also included in the group are Humala’s former advisers —political analyst Carlos Tapia, historian Sinesio Lopez and economist Felix Jimenez.

Members of the group left Humala’s government last year following a major cabinet shuffle that was largely due to a dispute over Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga gold project.

In January this year, Sinesio Lopez wrote in an op-ed column of what he considered was “the capture of Ollanta“, comparing the Inca Atahualpa’s capture and ransom to Pizarro in Cajamarca with, 474 years later, today’s ‘capture’ of President Humala by bankers and finance ministers and latterly by big mining, also in Cajamarca.

The members of the new group accompanied Humala during the 2011 presidential Read more…

Recent reports and photographs of Shining Path rebels in Peru’s southeast jungle have shown that the rebel group holds dozens of young children, kidnapped or born to kidnapped women, to train them as rebel soldiers.

UNICEF’s office in Peru said Tuesday that the use of children by remnant groups of the Shining Path rebels is a violation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF said it “rejects the direct and indirect participation, forced or voluntary of boys, girls and adolescents in any situation of armed violence.”

“The utilization of children and adolescents on the part of the Shining Path Read more…