Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Andina

A delegation of Peruvian ministers and officials -led by Cabinet’s chief Javier Velasquez Quesquen- will be traveling to Cusco region to verify relief efforts for areas affected by rains and floods.

This includes the proper provision of food and water for stranded tourists through an air bridge of helicopters.

Aircrafts will use stadiums in Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu district as heliports. The main task is to carry relief supplies to affected areas,pick up tourists and take them back to Cusco by road.

Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Martin Perez is part of the delegation heading to Cusco, who along with Peru’s Prime Minister, will personally supervise the evacuation of people stranded by heavy rains near the top attraction, Machu Picchu.

Days of heavy rains triggered up to 40 landslides, one of which blocked the railway between Machu Picchu and Cuzco.

Two people are reported to have died when a mudslide destroyed their home.

The train to the city of Cuzco is the only means of transport on the last leg of the trip to the ruins, and has been suspended since Saturday when it was blocked by a landslide.

That was one of many landslips which have blocked roads and destroyed homes in the region.

Hundreds of hectares of crops, mostly maize, were destroyed when rivers broke their banks.

The authorities in Cuzco have declared a state of emergency in the south-eastern region of the country where they say up to 3,000 people have had their homes destroyed by floods and landslides.

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Isabel Guerra

28.5% of Limenians would vote for Lourdes Flores as Lima's Mayor, provided that Luis Castañeda, the current Mayor, does not run in next municipal elections, according to the latest poll conducted by CPI.

The survey places Alex Kouri, current Callao's Mayor, in second place, with 17.6%, followed by former Miraflores Mayor, Fernando Andrade (6.3%), a candidate from fujimorist party (5.7%), Alberto Tejada, San Borja's Mayor (4.4%), and former minister Susana Villarán (2.4%).

The poll results include the current Women's and Social Development Minister, Nidia Vìlchez (2.3%) and former minister Juan Sheput (1.5%).

The survey also asks if Flores should run in the Municipal elections; 61.8% of the polled persons think she should, while only 28% consider that she should not.

Flores declared that she would consider carefully about running in municipal elections of not.

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Andina

Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde confirmed today that Peru’s President Alan Garcia will attend to the 6Th Summit of Heads of State and Governments from Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe (ALCUE) to be held in May in Madrid, Spain.

In this sense, he did not ruled out that the president might lead the signing ceremony of the trade agreement with the European Union, which is making the trade delegates from Europe with the representatives from Peru and Colombia.

He mentioned that today Monday in Lima has began the 8th round of negotiations between Peru, Colombia and the European Union representatives.

“The negotiations began today, that should be the last round on negotiations. If that was the case, everything is ready to sign the trade agreement with the European Union in May in Madrid,” said Garcia Belaunde in statements to Andina.

The delegations gathered in Lima are led by Santiago Pardo from Colombia, Eduardo Brandes, from Peru, and Gaspar Frontini, from the EU, reported the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism

The concert is scheduled for tomorrow, Jan. 19, at University of San Marcos Stadium.

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Isabel Guerra

Chile's newly appointed President, Sebastian Piñera, pictured here, will find “willingness to dialogue” and “the best disposition” in Peru, in order to continue working in the common agenda between the two countries, said Peru's Chancellor Jose Garcia Belaunde.

In this regard, Minister Garcia Belaunde welcomed Sebastian Piñera’s comments on the issue during his presidential campaign, mentioning that Lima y Santiago can keep harmonic relations, and that issues like the lawsuit pending in The Hague Court should not affect relations between both neighboring countries.

Garcia Belaunde estimates that, once Piñera takes office, both countries should revise all the work they had been doing during Michelle Bachelet's government, because “that is favorable for both countries, in the end.”

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Isabel Guerra

Amazonian indigenous leaders represented in Aidesep association say that they did not reach any agreement with the Peruvian government, after the meeting they had with some officials from the Amazonian peoples bureau.

Daisy Zapata, Aidesep's vice President, informed that they will demand the creation of a new comission, conformed with more representatives from civil and indigenous society, remarking that they are “open to dialogue.”

“They lied. We did not get to any agreement. This meeting was not correctly conducted. We showed our good disposition but we were not heard,” she said.

Zapata said that it was not appropriate that the reports to be discussed were delivered first to the Council of Ministers, rather than to the native communities, to be discussed.

Saul Puertas, Aidesep's General Secretary, said that the Agriculture Minister did not accepted the indigenous proposals and quit from the meeting.

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Isabel Guerra

Peru's Finance Minister, Mercedes Aráoz, will travel this week to Washington (United States) to meet her counterpart, the US Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner.

A supreme decree published today in the official gazette El Peruano authorizes her trip, stating that it is an official state mission, between Jan. 14 and 16.

In addition, Mercedes Araoz will participate in the Interamerican Bank of Development (BID)'s Workgroup on Capital Increase, and will also have work meetings with representatives of other multilateral organisms.

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Isabel Guerra

Former Internal Affair Minister Fernando Rospigliosi, ruled out the possibility that the photographs showing missing policeman Felipe Bazan surrounded by a group of natives in Bagua can be a photomontage.

“That would be very difficult since the image came from a video,” he said.

However, he does not agree with declaring Bazan as dead in action, because “this situation can occur only after three years of searching without finding any remains.” "I understand that the Police has taken the native's declaration as a definitive proof,” he said.

Rospigliosi said that adding that those directly responsible for the alleged killing of Major Bazan appear in the photo, but the legal responsible of the failure of the police operation would be former Minister Mercedes Cabanillas.

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Isabel Guerra

US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg will tour Colombia and Peru next week, starting on Jan. 11.

Both countries are considered as the most important partners of the US in the region-

This official visit will take place in a moment when President Alvaro Uribe starts a new campaign to approve a Colombia-US FTA.

Deputy Secretary Steinberg will then travel to Peru, where he will meet with high level Peruvian officials on January 14.

The Deputy Secretary plans to review issues related to the bilateral relationships, US. programs in Peru, and ways to deepen cooperation, the fight against drug traffic, trade and economic development.

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Isabel Guerra

The recent proposal to renew the Peruvian congress every two years and a half is generating many critics, especially from lawmakers from the opposing political parties.

Jorge del Castillo told said that such a measure would allow the people to punish, with their vote, any lawmaker that incurs in misconduct.

"The real sovereign, the people, could change the composition of the Congress at the begining and at half of every government,” said del Castillo, expressing his wish that a referendum could be implemented to decide on this idea.

On the other side, opposer Rolando Sousa (from fujimorist party) warned that there is not any constitutional system in the world that allows this: unicameral congress, volunteer voting and congress renovation.

“This means a jump into nowhere,” he said, remarking that “this does not exist anywhere in the world.”.

The ruling party in Peru, APRA, had announced yesterday that it will present a bill proposing the partial renovation of the Congress, reducing the parliamentary period from five years of office to only two years and a half.

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Isabel Guerra

The Peru-EU FTA may be signed by both parts next May in Madrid, said Peru's Chancellor José Antonio García Belaunde.

“The negotiations are having significant advances and we do think that the FTA will be ready for its signature in May, during the Latin America, Caribbean and EU (EU-LAC) Summit, to take place in Madrid this year,” he explained to Andina news agency.

He added that both teamworks will meet in Lima this month, to take these negotiations to its conclusion.

“Once the text is ready, we will revise it and have it translated to the European languages. That's why we think that everything will be ready to sign in May,” he said.

The next EU-LAC Summit will take place on May 18, 2010 in Madrid, preceded by a Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on May 17.

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