Living in Peru : your everyday companion

At the International Media Center (IMC) in Lima, Peru, a display of various potatoes native to the country will be open to the public during the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader’s Week. The display was set up on behalf of the Agriculture Ministry to provide more information on one of country’s leading products.

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Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Political parties, unions, citizens and investors across Peru continue to react to Alan Garcia's appointment of leftist Yehude Simon as the country's new Prime Minister.

Raúl Castro Stagnaro, general secretary of the Popular Christian Party affirmed that the head of his party, former presidential candidate Lourdes Flores had affirmed that she was willing to speak to and negotiate with the new Prime Minister.

Salvador Heresi, the mayor of the Limean district of San Miguel spoke of the new Premier's past but affirmed that Alan Garcia should completely support Simon.

"The president of the republic must act as the head of state and let day to day activities be handled by the president of the council of ministers (Yehude Simon)."

Nationalist leader and former presidential candidate Ollanta Humala assured the new Cabinet Chief had the full political support of his party.

APRA lawmaker Mercedes Cabanillas also affirmed Yehude Simon had the party's support, stating there was a team of APRA congressional representatives ready to support the cabinet chief and his ministers.

Renzo Reggiardo, a spokesperson for the "Fujimorista" political party explained that Keiko Fujimori had expressed her desire to speak with Simon and keep an open and constant line of communication with him.

Luis Carranza was replaced today as Peru's finance minister by Luis Valdivieso, a former official for the International Monetary Fund. Valdivieso was sworn in on Monday afternoon by President Alan Garcia, He affirmed that keeping inflation under control and spreading Peru's wealth were among his ministry's top priorities.

In an effort to finance a liquefied natural-gas project, Peru LNG, a partnership between Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, Texas (Project Leader, 50%), SK Energy of South Korea (20%), Spain's Repsol YPF (20%) and Marubeni of Japan (10%), has landed $2.25 billion in loans from the Inter- American Development Bank, the World Bank's International Finance Corp. and the U.S. and Korean Export-Import Banks. The consortium has gathered the funds to build a $3.8 billion plant in Peru, which is expected to begin operations in 2010 and produce 4.4 million metric tons of natural gas a year.

A cleanup and maintenance project was begun this week on a 4,000-year-old Peruvian geoglyph known as El águila milenaria. The eagle was found by the world-renowned archaeologist Walter Alva one decade ago. It is located in the northern region of Lambayeque and is 60 meters (196 feet) long and 50 meters (164 feet) wide.

With the sound of Andean instruments, over 500 actors from Peru's School of Fine Arts as well as performers from around the country began the annual festival known as Inti Raymi Tuesday morning. Over 800 people were hired to provide security for the tens of thousands of spectators that attended the event. Click here for more information on this amazing celebration.

After being held hostage for almost two days, protestors in the southern region of Moquegua released National Police General Alberto Jordan. Another 48 police officers were released as well. General Jordan will now fly to Lima to express demands being made by miners and Moqueguan residents. Hours before the 48 officers were released, another twelve wounded police officials were set free. It was reported that protestors are not holding anyone else hostage.

In what has been dubbed "Electrification Week", President Alan Garcia has gone on a tour of the Andean country, inaugurating projects that are to provide electricity for Peru's most rural regions. People celebrated as they began to see the benefits of having electricity. 10 towns in Junin, 4,000 people in Huancavelica, 34 towns in the region of Piura, 13 establishments in La Libertad and 77 towns in Cusco will all benefit from having electricity.

Darío Alessandro, the Argentinean Ambassador to Peru, was in the Andean country on Wednesday and confirmed an agreement between the two countries that would benefit 300,000 undocumented Peruvians in Argentina and 20,000 undocumented Argentineans in Peru. It was reported that the deal has been authorized by Peru's congress and is awaiting Argentina's approval.