Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Andina

Francis Allison resigned as Peru's housing, construction and sanitation minister on Sunday, less than four months after being sworn-in by President Alan Garcia.

The former mayor of Lima's Magdalena district, Francis Allison has submitted his resignation claiming that earthquake victims in southern Peru deserve a minister who can work for them full time, instead of defending himself from certain accusations.

In a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Allison said he is 'frustrated and sad' at failing to carry out his reconstruction project in the southern provinces, adding that he has been a victim of a defamation campaign.

Housing Minister Francis Allison said recently he did not communicate to the president his work relationship with the Business Track (BT) firm because it was not "publicly relevant."

Allison said he made this decision because he considered BT, a firm which had been investigated for wire-tapping, to be a legal entity.

An official said he did not evade the two previous summons made by Parliament to clear up the issue, since in both cases he was attending work meetings in the country's interior.

Lastly, Allison said that he did honest work and that his only aim has been to improve his family's circumstances.

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Isabel Guerra

According to a survey run by El Comercio, Keiko Fujimori has dropped to second place in voting intention polls, while Lima Mayor Luis Castañeda Lossio has risen to  first place.

The poll was conducted by Ipsos Apoyo Marketing Company, and shows Castaneda winning 21% of expected votes, compared with 20% for Keiko Fujimori, a lawmaker and daughter of now-jailed former President Alberto Fujimori.

The poll, which interviewed 1,000 people, also shows that the preferences for the nationalist leader Ollanta Humala have dropped to third place, with 13%, followed by former President Alejandro Toledo with 10% and Lourdes Flores with 9%.

Castaneda, a lawyer, carried out an unsuccessful bid for president in 2000 before winning the post of mayor of Peru's capital in 2002.

In previous elections, Flores and Castaneda have both been members of the same center-right political alliance.

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.

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Isabel Guerra

Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s approval rating in Lima and Callao rose to 34.7%, according to a survey from University of Lima's Public Opinion Group.

The so-called “barometer” contrasts this rise with the drops that some of his Ministers have suffered.

The Prime Minister, Javier Velásquez Quesquén, has dropped one point and maintains only 19%  approval, while the Finances' Minister. Luis Carranza, keeps only 35% of approval.

Peru's Congressional approval rating has been improving, too, since its disapproval rate has dropped from 66% to 61% according to this poll.

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Isabel Guerra

Governmental authorities, provoked by a statement by Alfredo Crespo, Abimael Guzmán’s lawyer, stated they considered the participation of Sendero Luminoso in politics to be unacceptable.

Crespo stated the leader of the organization proposed that pardoned or released Sendero activists should be able to participate in the country’s electoral process.

“Peru should know who now wants to participate in the political life of the country, those that want to involve themselves by killing thousands and thousands of Peruvians, beginning with the poorest, the illiterate. …[Shining Path] committed a series of assassinations without remedy or pardon” stated Apra’s congressman Jorge Castillo.

According to El Comercio,  Minister Nidia Vílchez stated that “here we need to build up an effort to get out of the international crisis and lower the poverty rate in Peru; not bring up the memory of the era of terrorism, in which so many people died.”

Sendero Luminoso is a terrorist organization that provoked an internal war in Peru. This war caused almost 70,000 deaths in Peru between 1980 and 2000.

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Katrina Heimark

The latest survey from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú shows that in just one month Keiko Fujimori has fallen in ranking by at least six percentage points. The survey, which asks “if the [presidential] elections were held tomorrow, for whom would you vote for?” questioned residents of Lima and Callao.

Luis Castañeda, mayor of Lima, received the highest percentage of “votes” with 17 %, while Keiko followed him with 16%. Just a month earlier, she led the survey with 22% affirming they would support her with their vote. However, the sharp fall in her popularity, according to Fernando Tuesta, director of the Institute of Public Opinion of the PUCP, shows that “she was an impulse [to support] when her father’s presence occupied the majority of the political debate.”

The survey also showed that 55% of Limenians “will not vote under any circumstances” for Ollanta Humala. Keiko Fujimori is the next to follow Humala with 25% of those questioned affirming the aforementioned statement. Alan García is also shown to have an approval rating of 29%, while at least 65% of Limenians approve of his job as president.

Peru’s Congress unanimously approved a historic law that will now allow fathers to spend four days at home after the birth of their child. Before, only women had the right to paid leave from work; however, from now on fathers, whether they are married to the mother of the child or not, will be able to have four consecutive days to further get to know their new child.

The paternity leave will be given by the father’s employer, and will be a mandatory four days off, beginning with the day the child is born. This initiative was proposed by the Work Commission, and was unanimously approved by Congress (only one member abstained from voting).

Miguel Ángel Ramos Padilla, director of the department of Family and Community within the Ministry of Women and Social Development, stated that the paternity leave “is an important element to assure that men become closer to the role of raising a child.” However, the measure has been critiqued for its very short duration. Ramos states that the leave should last at least ten days, as that is the “minimum amount of time that it takes for a woman to recuperate after giving birth.”

According to La República, Alan García signed an urgent decree this morning that will authorize, for the first time, an extraordinary compensation for the families of soldiers that were killed in the latest skirmishes in the zone “VRAE.”

The amount to be paid to each family will be S/. 55,000 soles (about US $18,000) per soldier killed during the conflict.

The Defense Department will be in charge of the fulfillment of this new decree, which follows the declaration of beneficiaries of personnel killed in combat.

This decree appears after the government has received much criticism for the manner in which it has handled the situation of injured soldiers in the VRAE zone.

The government has pledged that this decree will be a “one time only” authorization, in honor of the military personnel that recently died.

Congressman Ricardo Pando Córdova, who is a supporter of Fujimori-style politics, was stabbed by his wife last Tuesday. Milagros Morales says she stabbed her husband out of self-defense. She stated that “two weeks ago, I asked him if we could separate.” She claims that she has been mistreated and abused throughout their 21 year marriage.

Neighbors, according to Peru.21, stated that Pando Córdova was not the only aggressive one in the relationship. Shouts and load discussions were common in the household. The stab wound was five centimeters deep and very close to his left kidney. He was taken by his 18 year old daughter to the Stella Maris clinic in Pueblo Libre, where he went through emergency surgery. Today he is found to be in a stable condition.

His wife does not deny the act and states that a few months ago she pressed charges against him for physical abuse but was pressured by the Public Ministry to retract the charges. Various Fujimori supporters state that Pando Córdova’s wife was responsible for many scandals within Congress, and that she constantly assaulted him.

Peru’s Anticorruption officer Jorge Chávez Cotrina informed El Comercio that US$3.9 million dollars in bank accounts belonging to a former Israeli official were frozen yesterday.

Former Israeli judge Dan Cohen has an order of extradition from Israel, but Peru does not have an agreement with Israel that would allow them to extradite him.

Cohen was working in Peru as a university professor. It was feared that his wife would be able to flee with the money, and thus action was taken to freeze his assets.

The 67 year old is under investigation in Israel for corruption charges. While serving as manager of the Israel Electric Corporation, he allegedly accepted a bribe worth tens of millions of dollars from the German company Siemens. He fled to Peru four years ago.

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Although Peru's President Alan García consideres “interesting” the idea of declaring the Apurimac-Ene River Valley (VRAE) “a war zone,” he ruled out that possibility today, telling the media that it would be applicable only in case of foreign invasion or civil war.

He said that all Peruvians should feel “tranquility, calm, serenity and trust” in the Armed Forces, and continue to give them moral support.

However, Luis Giampietri, the Vice President, insisted on his proposal of turning the area a war zone, relocating the population in safe places while the Armed Forces get rid of narcoterrorists. Earlier, Fernando Valer, the Executive Secretary of the Working Group for VRAE, said the proposal is "barbaric.”

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.