Peru mental health specialists provide treatment for children of political violence

A team of mental health professionals from the National Institute of Child Health began a campaign Monday to provide support for youth who have experienced trauma originating from Peru’s armed conflict from 1980 – 2000 in the department of Ayacucho, located in the country’s south-central Andes. The health experts will provide counseling to 1,250 children [...]

Peru army and navy continue with war memorial plans

Retired military and their supporters are going ahead with plans to build a monument to the ‘Defenders of Democracy’, in honor of those who fought against Sendero Luminoso and the MRTA rebels during the 20 years of internal war (1980-2000).   The monument is planned to be ‘complementary’ to the Museum of the Memory, according [...]

Grieving families bury dead massacred by Peruvian military at Putis

The remains of 92 people murdered and buried in a mass grave by the Peruvian military in 1984 were laid to rest Saturday, nearly 25 years after one of the worst military massacres occurred in the remote Andean village of Putis. The burials culminated a two-day funeral procession that departed from the highland city of [...]

If I don’t come back, look for me in Putis: bodies of “disappeared” returned to families 25 years after massacre

Amidst tears and cries of pain, the remains of 92 people murdered and buried in a mass grave by the Peruvian military in 1984 were returned to their loved ones in the highland city of Ayacucho on Wednesday. Of the 92 remains exhumed from the mass grave, only 28 have been formally identified.

Jailed U.S. citizen Lori Berenson gives birth to baby boy

Lori Berenson, a New York native imprisoned in Peru for collaborating with leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) guerrillas, gave birth by cesarean section to a baby boy on Wednesday. The boy, delivered by c-section because of Berenson’s degenerative arthritis of the spine, was named Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson and will have dual U.S. and [...]

Peru’s Garcia does about-face on German donation to build memorial museum for victims of political violence

A month after he was harshly criticized for rejecting Germany’s $2 million donation to build a museum to honor the memory of the 70,000 people who died during Peru’s 1980-2000 dirty war with Maoist Shining Path Guerrillas, President Alan Garcia has changed his mind, and announced that he will move forward with the museum’s construction. [...]

Peru government harshly criticized for turning down $2 million donation for museum

Over the weekend, Peru’s leading op-ed columnists continued to criticize President Alan Garcia’s decision to reject a $2 million donation from the German government to build a museum to honor the memory of 70,000 people who died as a result of Peru’s 1980-2000 civil war. The criticism prompted President García to admit that the successive [...]

Peru journalists remember fallen colleagues on 26th anniversary of Uchuraccay massacre

Peruvian journalists across Peru held marches and commemoration ceremonies on Monday to honor eight journalists that were murdered 26 years ago in the Andean hamlet of Uchuraccay, Ayacucho. At the same time, the victims’ families demanded that the case be reopened. “So that it never happens again, Uchuraccay martyrs never again!” chanted marchers in Juliaca, [...]