Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Top | 11 April, 2006 [ 10:03 ]

The archaeological site of Choquequirao in danger

Workers from the National Direction of Copesco in Cusco are working building a new road in the area of Huanipaca, they use dinamite in order to work faster, but the detonations are affecting the stone structures of the archaeological site of Choquequirao. Choquequirao was discovered recently and it almost as important as Machu Picchu, tough it has not been declared a National Reserve as Machu Picchu, therefore it is allowed to use dinamite in the construction work in the surroundings.
The authorities should avoid any damage to the old stone structure.

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Top | 11 April, 2006 [ 09:58 ]

Peru´s elections in the eye of the storm

200 press correspondents followed the elections in Peru, which was qualified as democratic and stirring, though the main comment was the incident with candidate Ollanta Humala, when he went to vote with his wife at the private University Ricardo Palma. He was called “murderer” by the residents of his own district and some threw objects to him.
Some correspondents were very surprised when the former army commander accused in a press conference his opponents Lourdes Flores, Alan Garcia and the president Alejandro Toledo to be behind this organized agression against him.
Among the newspapers that cover the elections are France Presse (France), Associated Press (USA), Bloomberg News (USA), Deutsche Press Agentur (Germany) and Efe (Spain), Dow Jones Newswires (USA), Kyoddo News (Japan), Reuters (Great Britain), United Press International (USA), Kopesa (Korea), International Japan (Japan) and Tages-Anzeiger (Swiss), Caracol TV (Colombia), Telemundo, Televisa (Mexico) and Univision.

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Top | 11 April, 2006 [ 09:58 ]

Ollanta Humala and ...

We are all waiting time after time for new results... who will be Ollanta Humala´s contendent? According to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE in Spanish) the results at the 80,82% of the votes are as following 30,25% for Ollanta Humala, 24,92% for Alan García and 24,03% for Lourdes Flores.
Anyway the results of the elections show the polarization of the country, Humala declared that he could win in the first round though he is far away from the 50% of the votes in order to win, the other two “traditional parties” have together almost 50% of the votes, so Mr. Humala´s speculations were wrong. Mr.García is the surprise because his last and only government was considered by many experts the “worse in Peru´s history”, though this man can talk and has charisma, the young voters who are the biggest part of the population do not remember his regime because they were just kids. The other surprise is Mr. Humberto Lay, an unknown evangelist architect who got 4,34% exceeding all the expectations.

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Top | 10 April, 2006 [ 12:02 ]

International articles about results of elections

Peru faces presidential run-off

A nationalist ex-army officer has a narrow lead in the first round of Peru's presidential election but the race looks set for a run-off vote.
With 59% of the votes counted, Ollanta Humala leads with 28% of the vote, with conservative Lourdes Flores in second place with 26%.
Former President Alan Garcia is close behind with 25% of the vote so far.
A second round on 7 May looks certain as Mr Humala is well below the 50% of the vote needed for outright victory. (BBC)

Runoff election inevitable in Peru

Leftist candidate Ollanta Humala, who was taunted by residents of his district when he voted Sunday, was barely ahead in Peru's presidential election, and a runoff election became inevitable when none of the top candidates received a majority of the vote.
A candidate needed at least 50 percent to claim victory. The runoff election is to be held within a month after final results are tallied.
With 45 percent of the ballots counted, Humala, a 43-year-old former army officer, had 27.32 percent of the vote in a field of 20 candidates late Sunday, according to the national elections office.
Conservative Lourdes Flores, 46, had 26.45 percent of the vote, and Alan Garcia, 55, a socialist who led Peru from 1985 to 1990, had 26.05 percent.
Humala had a larger lead in unofficial voting results released by the election watchdog group Transparencia. (CNN)

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Top | 10 April, 2006 [ 11:33 ]

Who will be Humala´s contender?

According to APOYO´s poll, the presidential candidate for Unión por el Perú Ollanta Humala got 30,2% of the votes, the other candidate representing Unidad Nacional Lourdes Flores Nano got 24,3% of the votes and the candidate of the political party APRA, Alan García Pérez got 23,8%. The percentage of the votes between the second and the third place is so close that all the votes must be counted before the announcement of the winner of the second place.

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Top | 6 April, 2006 [ 12:08 ]

Dutch swindlers are operating through internet

Functionaries of the Dutch Embassy in Lima have sent a warning about a group of Dutch swindlers, who contact Peruvian businessmen and traders through internet offering them loans with low interests and prizes in “cash”. They ask for a “small commission” for the finantial transanction. The criminals use names of enterprises registered in Holland, they use mobile phones with numbers starting with 00, 31 and 06.
The people who are interested in the loans trust these enterprises because they are registered in Holland and they send the money for the “commissions”, but they never get the money for the loans. It is impossible to track down the swindlers because the information given by them is false.

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Top | 6 April, 2006 [ 12:07 ]

Traffic congestion today in Lima downtown

Today is the last day where presidential candidates can have political meetings. There are three meetings in Lima downtown, Alan García, Lourdes Flores and Valentín Paniagua will have their lasts meetings in downtown today. In Lima city there are nine political meetings and 7 thousand policemen will be on duty to provide security to the population.
On Sunday 12 thousand police members will be on duty to provide security in the 920 voting centres in Lima and 94 thousands will be on duty in the whole country working together with 70 thousand members of the Army Forces

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Top | 6 April, 2006 [ 12:06 ]

Life sentence for child abuse

Individuals who rape children under 10 will be condamned to life sentence. In order to be able to apply this sentence the Penal Code has been changed. If the rapist is a family member of a victim under 18 or if the violation causes the death of a person under 18, the rapist will get life sentence too.

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Top | 6 April, 2006 [ 12:05 ]

Inka Trail could be Cultural Patrimony of Humankind

The Scientific Committe of UNESCO evaluates the nomination of the Inka Trail or Qhapac Nam (in Quechua) as Cultural Patrimony of Humankind.
The Inka Trail is 25 thousand km long and crosses six countries Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

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Top | 4 April, 2006 [ 12:12 ]

Domestic agressions grew with 300%

In a meeting organized by the Institute of Legal Defense (IDL in Spanish) was emphasized that domestic violence is part of the citizen security, problem which is spread in the big cities of Peru, the physical and psychological integrity of women and children are in danger and they have no access to fair justice.
In a report made by the NGO Acción por los Niños (Action for children) it was denounced that the Demuna -Defensorías municipales del niño y el adolescente (Municipal office for the child and the teenager) reported 14.610 claims for family violence in 2005. The domestic violence cases increased in 300% in relation to 2004. There are 600 Demuna offices in the whole country.

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