District Attorney cleared of all charges in Majaz torture case

Piura region district attorney Sofía Milla has dropped all charges against her colleague, former DA Félix Toledo Leiva, who was accused of witnessing the torture and kidnapping of 29 anti-mining protesters in 2005, but doing nothing, daily El Comercio reported Tuesday. Milla cleared her colleague, currently jailed in a Piura prison on charges of corruption [...]

Social conflicts up by 150 percent since 2008

Social conflicts in Peru have shot up from 93 in March 2008 to 238 this past month, reported daily El Comercio on Tuesday. Of the 238 social conflicts tracked last month, more than half were related to environmental concerns. To tackle some of the ongoing conflicts, the state-sponsored Ombudsman’s Office – in charge of protecting [...]

DA: charges warranted against police in Majaz mine torture case, mining camp’s private security agents exonerated

The Piura region district attorney has pressed criminal charges against some of the police officers involved in the torture and kidnapping of 29 anti-mining protesters in 2005, but has exonerated the Majaz mining camp security guards who also took part in incidents, daily La República reported Wednesday. According to district attorney Juan Ortiz Arévalo, a group of low-ranking [...]

Inter-American Press Association worried about growing number of acts of aggression against journalists in Peru

There is growing concern about the increase in the number of cases of journalists violently attacked and threatened with death in reprisal for their work, the Inter-American Press Association, or IAPA, said in its Report to the Midyear Meeting. One outstanding case is journalist Julio Vasquéz Calle, who said that he has received numerous death [...]

Amnesty International: Peru journalist and peasant community members pursuing a complaint against police for torture “are in grave danger”

Peru journalist Julio César Vásquez Calle and at least 28 members of peasant communities that charged police and Majaz mining camp security guards of torturing them during a quelled protest in 2005 have received menacing phone calls and death threats, Amnesty International reports. According to Amnesty, the peasants and Calle, who claims he was brutalized [...]

La República: Paramilitaries, Inc.

Op-Ed piece from Saturday’s La República By Alberto Adrianzén Calling things by their name is enormously difficult for Peruvian politics. Frequently, politics is a refuge for lies, and a source of confusion. If politics is in crisis, it is because it has yet to establish new communicative connections allowing it to construct truths that are [...]