Impeachment, PPK and Peru’s Stunted Democracy
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Immature parties and political institutions have left Peru on the brink of crisis. A coming impeachment vote spells more trouble ahead.
Peru
A Former President’s Detention Raised Few Eyebrows in Peru. What’s Going On?
LIMA – In most countries, the arrest of a former head of state on corruption allegations would trigger uproar. In Peru, the pre-trial detention of former President Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia has met with something of a collective shrug. The country has been here before. Recently. Of Humala’s three predecessors spanning … Read more
Peru’s Opposition Plays Hardball
This article has been updated. Correction appended below. Twelve months ago, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pulled off a major upset when he beat Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the jailed hard-right strongman Alberto Fujimori, in Peru’s presidential runoff. The septuagenarian centrist economist squeaked in by just 41,000 votes — out of a total of more than 17 … Read more
This Week in Latin America: A Close Vote in Peru
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Peru Votes: Peru will choose a new president Sunday in a close runoff election between two center-right candidates. In an Ipsos poll released on May 29, first-round winner Keiko Fujimori held a six-point advantage over her business-friendly challenger Pedro Pablo Kucyznski. However, Kuczynski may yet … Read more
Peru’s LGBT Community Frustrated By Violence, Presidential Election
With less than six weeks to go before Peru’s presidential election, gay rights activists are fighting to put LGBT inclusion on the national agenda and find a candidate to rally behind. It isn’t easy, says Carlos Polo in Lima. Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Polo was beaten by police while kissing his boyfriend during a small … Read more
Former UN Climate Talks President Says Latin America Has Much to Gain at Paris Conference
On the opening day of international climate change talks in Paris this week, Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Peru’s environment minister, officially handed over the presidency of the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. AQ sat down with the minister to talk about Latin America’s role in climate negotiations in Paris … Read more
AQ Slideshows: Natural Resource Extraction in Latin America
Award-winning photographer Nicolas Villaume accompanied Americas Quarterly to Chile, Colombia and Peru in 2012 to study natural resource extraction and its effect on social inclusion. Photographed during the AQ team’s site visits to mines in each country and meetings with stakeholders at the extraction sites and nearby communities, Villaume’s photos bring this research to life … Read more
[i]AQ[/i] Videos: Natural Resource Extraction in Chile, Colombia and Peru
AQ traveled to Colombia, Chile and Peru in 2012 to study natural resource extraction and its effect on social inclusion, made possible with the generous support of the Ford Foundation. On each trip, the team met with mining officials, local government representatives, community leaders, and environmental activists to gain a broad, nuanced and diverse understanding … Read more
Mining Tensions in Peru and Argentina
The mining boom has brought huge economic benefits to some of Latin America’s least developed countries. But in big mining countries like Colombia and Bolivia the industry’s success is accompanied by an increase in protests, violence and human rights abuses. Not everyone has been able to share in the wealth created by mining—and in many … Read more
[i]AQ[/i] Q&A: Miguel Santillana and Cynthia Sanborn on Chinese Mining in Peru
What are the effects of China’s growing investments in Peruvian mining endeavors? AQ gets answers from Miguel Santillana, lead researcher of the Instituto del Perú at the Universidad de San Martín de Porres, and Cynthia Sanborn, director of the Universidad del Pacífico‘s Research Center. Mining, an industry that has been active since “pre-Inca ages” according … Read more
[i]AQ[/i] Slideshow: Celebrating Day of the Dead in Peru
Every year on November 1 Peruvians flock to cemeteries to celebrate Día de los muertos, or Day of the Dead, a popular religious holiday where family members honor loved ones who have passed away. In Lima, one of the most popular destinations on this day is the Virgen del Lourdes cemetery, located on the outskirts … Read more
Combating Youth Unemployment in Peru
Youth unemployment rates are near 20 percent in some areas of Peru, and not coincidentally, gang activity also is on the rise. It is a situation that cannot be ignored and one which President Ollanta Humala pledged to address during the campaign. His solution: combat gangs by promoting job training. This August, just weeks after … Read more
A Plurality Loses the Vote in Peru and Faces a Tough Choice
Peruvians are bracing themselves for one of the most divisive presidential campaigns in recent history, with nationalist Ollanta Humala set to face off against right-wing Keiko Fujimori on June 5. The former colonel, who once led a coup against the corrupt administration of Ms. Fujimori’s father Alberto, has garnered 31 percent of the vote with … Read more
Hydroelectric Energy in the Peruvian Amazon: The Inambari Puzzle
Peru’s appetite for investment has again led it deep into the Amazon jungle. This time a new hydroelectricity project, the Inambari Dam, is poised to bring irreversible social and environmental changes to the region. Inambari, to be developed in the buffer zone of the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, will be the largest hydroelectricity project in Peru … Read more
Peruvian Indigenous Land Conflict Explained
June 12, 2009 Few regions in the world are as richly endowed as the Peruvian Amazon. Beyond housing around 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity, it is rich in mineral, hydrocarbon and forestry resources, and its rivers are a coveted source of freshwater, food and energy. But the Amazon’s riches have also set the stage … Read more
