Prosecutor Investigates Police Over Drug Arrest In Puno

A prosecutor in Peru’s southern region of Puno is investigating allegations that police officers in the area have held on to cocaine paste confiscated from drug traffickers, according to a report by newspaper La Republica. On April 26, a group of residents in the community of San Ignacio, located in Puno’s Sandia province, captured a [...]

Humala: Peru To Start Development Of Southern Andean Gas Pipeline

President Ollanta Humala, dressed in a south Amazon-style tunic or cushma and a feathered headdress, announced in the Cusco town of Quillabamba the plans to begin construction of the Southern Andean Gas Pipeline. The pipeline, which will be more than 1,000 kilometers long, is to transport gas from the Camisea fields in the Amazonian jungle in [...]

Tacna To Request Closure Of Maximum Security Prison

Peru’s southern Tacna region is to ask the government to close the maximum security prison where 17 inmates escaped on Sunday, state news agency Andina reported. Tacna’s regional cabinet will send a letter to government palace, the office of the prime minister and Congress to formally make the request. Tacna says the Challapalca prison has caused [...]

Puno official says 27 children have died from cold

The regional health office in Southern Peru’s Puno region has reported that 27 children under the age of five  have died in recent weeks in the department from respiratory infections due to a sharp drop in temperature. Children in Puno are one of the most vulnerable groups to the cold that hits the region during [...]

UN indigenous rights expert calls on Peru to improve dialogue

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, urged Peru’s government on Wednesday to improve dialogue with indigenous peoples involved in recent anti-mining protests in Puno. Aymara communities began protests in early May calling for the cancellation of a silver project owned by Canadian firm Bear Creek Mining and the suspension [...]

Ex-PM Simon urges Humala to focus on conflicts in central, southern Peru

The incoming government of President-elect Ollanta Humala will need to provide more attention to central and southern Peru in order to reduce social conflicts, said former Prime Minister Yehude Simon. Simon recommends Humala form a team aimed at preventing protests, state news agency Andina reported. Over the past few months, social conflicts have led to numerous [...]

Tourists leave Puno amid escalating protests

More than 200 tourists who were stranded in southern Peru’s Puno department due to protests against mining activities have managed to leave the area, according to the president of the Regional Chamber of Tourism (Caretur), Manuel Quiñones. The tourists were able to leave the region through the airport at Juliaca, state news agency Andina reported. [...]

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 [...]

Lake Titicaca water level drops 2.6 ft this year

Water levels on the world’s highest navigable lake have dropped 81 cm (2.6 ft) in just seven months, since April this year, according to the Binational Lake Titicaca Authority, ALT. The lake’s water level rises and falls frequently, as can be seen in the graph. The sharper fluctuations are caused by heavy rains, and by [...]

Climate change: intense cold front has killed 20,000 alpaca in Puno so far this year

Climate change continues to wreck havoc in Peru’s southern Altiplano, where the arrival of freezing temperatures since March — almost three months earlier than usual — have killed at least 20,000 alpaca, reported Peru’s National Agriculture and Sanitation Service, or Senasa. Since January, approximately 20,000 alpaca – a number that still remains within normal limits – [...]

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