Living in Peru : your everyday companion

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

The arrivals of visitors to Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary have increased despite the effects of the financial crisis in world tourism.

According to information provided by the INC Cusco, from January to September of this year, the inca citadel reached a total of 666.393 visitors, foreign and domestic, representing a growth of 6% over the same period of 2008, when 629.067 visitors arrived.

The figures show that the visits of foreign tourists rose slightly compared to other years: the growth rate was only 2.9%, reflecting some impact of the crisis in the source markets.

Between January and September of 2009, 488.004 foreign tourists arrived in Machu Picchu compared to 474.229 last year.

In the case of domestic tourism, the data indicates that a total of 178.389 Peruvian tourists visited the Inca Citadel, which represents a remarkable growth of 15.2% compared to the same period in 2008.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Peru's young chess player Jorge Cori, Daysi Cori's younger brother, won the U-14 chess world title.

Little Jorge Cori was half a point behind Polish rival Kamil Dragun, who had previously defeated him.

Meanwhile, Dragun lose this morning against Ucranian Alexandr Bortnik and Cori defeated Dutch Benjamin Bok.

After this round, Jorge Cori reached 9 points and Bortnik is second with 8,5 points.

"Jorge is the new world champion. He is very pleased, because his only thought was to win the world title, to be the best one. He didn't want silver nor bronze," said his father Jorge Cori Sánchez to El Comercio.

On the other side, Deysi ratified her condition as new world title holder after drawing to Georgian Nazi Paikidze.

The Peruvian young geniuses will be back home next Thursday.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Yesterday several unions from Andahuaylas started an indefinite strike, protesting against the violence that had been in Abancay streets the day before, and in opposition to the request of vacancy of the regional president, David Salazar, which they consider "political maneuvering".

This strike in Abancay had begun more than 10 days, when the Defense Front Abancay raised its claims because of their disagreement with the the allocation of funds (from the Ministry of Economy and Finance) to a hospital in Andahuaylas.

The leaders of this front demanded that the money to be allocated for other public works in other provinces too, and accused the regional President of favoritism towards Andahuaylas. The growing public tension erupted on Friday, and the police responded by firing tear gas, triggering a stampede that left dozens injured.

At present, only 7 of the more than 60 wounded people remain hospitalized, as required surgery.

The rest were discharged the same night between Friday and yesterday morning.

Have other topics you'd like to see in our news section? If you or someone you know would like to contribute a news article to Living in Peru, whether it's translated or based on a personal investigation, send it to editor@livinginperu.com.

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

The Danish former supermodel Helena Christensen, now a a photographer, documented the threat that global climate change is posing to the indigenous people of people of Peru (the native country of her mother) in a series of photographs which are being exhibited in London since last Thursday.

Christensen traveled to the Peruvian Andes earlier this year with Oxfam (the organization that sponsors the exhibition) to portray the suffering of indigenous people who are increasingly dealing with from lack of water and food due to rising temperatures, a change in the cycle of seasons and an accelerated melting of glaciers.

Peru is the third most vulnerable to climate change country after Honduras and Bangladesh, and its glaciers have lost 22% of its total area in the last 30 years, which is equivalent to Lima's water consumption for 10 years, according Oxfam.

"For many of us, climate change is an idea that belongs to the distant future but for millions of people in developing countries it is already a devastating reality," said Christensen, less than three weeks before the opening of the Copenhagen climate summit (to start on December 7th).

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Peru's current infrastructure is presenting an obstacle to the country's competitiveness; according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for 2008-2009, Peru's infrastructure ranks 113th out of 134 countries assessed.

According to several press reports, the Peruvian government was planning to work on this with two major transport infrastructure projects in the country, estimated to cost US$6.5 billion dollars in total.

The first project envisages creating a road network in the Callao and Lima regions in the west of the country, with an investment of US$ 5 billion dollars.

The second project is the NorAndino railway project, which is supposed to cost US$1.5 billion dollars and will link the rich mining region of Cajamarca with Lambayeque and Piura, where the port of Bayovar is located, thus reducing transit costs and times for mining companies operating in the region.

However, according to Companiesandmarkets.com forecasts, Peru's transport and communications GDP will have risen by 2.2% in 2009, ahead of the 2.0% gain for the economy as a whole; the total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$2.76billion in nominal terms by 2014, representing 8.6% of Peru's GDP.

The same webpage states that the transport and communications sector employed an estimated 742,500 people, or 8.5% of the labour force, in 2009, and they expect it will increase to 814,900 and 8.5% by 2014.

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Andina

A greater business engagement in the improvement of education, the consolidation of institutions and the boost of technology, were the main conclusions mentioned by the President of the Peruvian Institute for Business Administration (IPAE) Jorge Yzusqui during the 47th Annual Conference of Business Executives (abbreviated CADE in Spanish) taking place in the Andean city of Arequipa.

Before an audience over 900 attendees, Jorge Yzusqui said that this commitment responds to the meeting called “Our future, our opportunity,” in which it was assessed the role of private companies in relation to future challenges.

Previous to the closing ceremony of this event, former Presidents of CADE and IPAE were honored, which included Pedro Reyser, Alonso Polar, Oswaldo Sandoval, Pablo Bustamante, Eduardo Razzeto, Claudio Herzka, among others.

Then, Yzusqui said that the challenge of this CADE edition was the practical exercise of its conclusions, in such a way that it enhances the ability of entrepreneurs to export products to foreign markets.

“And that resulted in four challenges: economic growth, increase competitiveness, internationalization of business, and go beyond our own markets,” he added.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

The young chess player Daysi Cori confirmed that she is the best in her category worldwide after winning the U-16 World Chess Championship, currently taking place in the town of Kemer, Turkey.

Daysi beat Georgian Mariam Danelia and added 9.5 points in the table, taking a lead of 1.5 points to its closest competitor (Meri Arabidze) and took the title.

"I'm very, very happy, very happy. In the last world championships I have not had the opportunity to reach the top. I only would see how the Europeans won and sang their national anthems. Now I'll be amongst them," she said in a telephone conversation with El Comercio.

Daysi still has an scheduled game for tomorrow against Nazi Paikidze (Georgia) but even is she loses the game she will still be the champion. However she wants to stay undefeated: "Anyway I'll go to win my last game," he said.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Peruvian player Jefferson Farfán scored a goal once again after five games to help Schalke 04 defeat Hannover 2-0 at rond 13 of the Bundesliga, putting Gelsenkirchen team one point behind the leaders of the German ligue.

Farfan got into the area at minute 69 and hit the ball with the head from a Rafinha assistance. In injury time Czech teammate Jan MOravek, who replaced Farfan, got the second goal for Schalke to seal the game 2-0.

The other Peruvian player in the team, Carlos Zambrano, didn't play due to a suspension.

With this result, Schalke reached 25 points and is one behind Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga leaders.

This game was the hardest in this round, because Robert Enke, who commited suicide recently, played at Hannover.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Some 53 civilians and 17 policemen were injured during some clashes Abancay (Apurimac), whose population is observing an indefinite strike that is lasting 12 days at present, according to Coordinadora Nacional de Radio.

The riots started around 6pm when a crowd of demonstrators, mostly students, tried to take the building of the Apurimac Regional Government.

Carlos Medel, head of the 16th Territorial Police Directorate (DIRTEPOL) said that fatalities have not been reported.

Medel also denied the versions indicating that 20 persons are missing, arguing that the police officers used only tear gas and pellets to disperse the crowd.

Abancay EsSalud hospital reported 15 injured (one of them by gun) wounded, while the Public Health Sector Hospital has reported 38 in, four of which have gun shots injuries.

The incidents occurred despite the fact that the regional council, reunited in Curahuasi, agreed to reformulate the 2010 budget.

Some leaders warned that they will not stop until they the regional president David Salazar resigns to the charge.

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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Our genious chess player Deysi Cori (ELO 2374) continues her path to the Under-16 title at Chess Young World Championship.

She defeated Ucranian Yuliya Shvayger, to reach 8.5 points in nine games played in Turkey.

If she wins today, we will have a new world champion.

Yesterday victory was very important for Deysi because it came along with a draw between Azerbaijan Qizi Nizami y la Georgian Meri Arabidze, and are now 1.5 points behind Cori.

She may be crowned world champion if she defeats Georgian Mariam Danelia, also with 7 points. Even more, Cori could win the title with a draw if Nizami and Arabidze don't win today.

Deysi, 2008 Under-15 Schoolgirl World Champion, is unbeaten at Turkey with eight wins and one draw.

Have other topics you'd like to see in our news section? If you or someone you know would like to contribute a news article to Living in Peru, whether it's translated or based on a personal investigation, send it to editor@livinginperu.com.