Archive Oct 15-31
Wednesday October 31, 2001
FUJIMORI LOSES IMMUNITY The Peruvian Congress has lifted ex-president Alberto Fujimori's immunity, reports Bloomberg, EFE, Reuters (in MSNBC), and the Associated Press (in the Boston Globe, CNN.com, the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post; earlier AP versions appear in the Boston Globe and the New York Times). "Congress voted 65-0 to lift the immunity of Fujimori and three former Cabinet ministers, which allows prosecutors to file charges of embezzlement and criminal activity against them," reports the AP. Reuters says there were no abstentions but EFE and the AP correctly point out that "55 other members of Congress either did not attend the session or abstained from voting." (AP) EFE says that this was the third accusation "to be approved by the full Congress against the former president." Reuters is the only one to name the three ministers who also lost their immunity: Boloña, Salas, and Bergamino.
TOLEDO: "MAFIA STILL EXISTS" EFE quotes President Alejandro Toledo saying "former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos is plotting to weaken Peru's government, in an alleged conspiracy with 'some politicians'." This news came from an interview with RPP Noticias radio network during a visit to Toledo's home town of Cabana. The Miami Herald and Reuters follows-up on yesterday's EFE report on the pro-Fujimori gathering in front of the Hotel Crillon in Lima. (See "Rally for the Republic" yesterday.) Reuters counted 1,000 people in the crowd whereas the EFE and the Herald counted over 3,000.
OTHER PROTESTERS Tomorrow reports that representatives of Friends of the Earth in Peru "denounced the [World] bank’s involvement in gold and copper mining in Peru." Gladys Marquez "urged the World Bank to reconsider its support for three mining projects" which, she said, were "jeopardizing agriculture on which local communities depend for their livelihood."
WHO'S WHO HERE? CNN.com and MSNBC use a re-edited version of a Reuters story running from earlier in the week on Fernando Zevallos, the founder of AeroContinente, who is accused of criminal activity. (See "Who's Sliming Who?" in Sunday, October 28.) Reuters also releases a photograph of Zevallos. Reporter Missy Ryan reports that "the list of those who have been suspected or accused is a Who's Who of Peruvian business -- including the heads of six of the country's seven television stations, top officials from the country's biggest banks and industry leaders. " (Photo: Reuters)
NEWS FROM PYONGYANG KCNA (the North Korean News Agency) reports that "over 20 parties" including the Socialist Party of Peru "studied and disseminated famous works of Kim Jong-il ... to celebrate the fourth anniversary of leader Kim Jong-il's election as general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party."
4 DIPLOMATIC DISPATCHES 1). M2Presswire reports that during a discussion at the United Nations on the International Court of Justice, Peru's Ambassador to the UN, Osvaldo de Rivero, said that "in recent times Peruvians had experienced the costs of the destruction of the rule of law and democratic institutions, and the subjugation of the political rights of citizens. Fortunately, those sombre episodes in history had been overcome, but watching an elected government demolish democratic institutions had served to reinforce respect for the enforcement of the law and justice." 2). Separately, M2Presswire reports that speaking before the General Assembly, Osvaldo de Rivero stated that the Security Council's composition "was not representative of the Assembly's membership, and the veto continued to exert its anachronistic influence over the Organization" and declared that "the question of the veto was the cornerstone of reform." 3). M2Presswire also reports that Alfredo Chuquihuara, speaking before the Third Committee on the issue of the Indigenous People's Forum, stated that States in his region had "recognized that the unique character of indigenous people required the adoption of special measures." He added that this would "strengthen the social, cultural and economic development of societies and communities as a whole." 4). Finally, M2Presswire reports that Raul Salazar spoke before the UN's Third Committee on Agenda 21 and declared that "the availability of resources, poverty eradication and social exclusion were key issues to be addressed," and that "topics such as unsustainable modes of production and consumption" should be included." Salazar stated that Peru "had acceded to a number of environmental instruments, including the Convention on Deforestation."
PLAYING CATCH-UP The Philadelphia Inquirer (USA) ran a Reuters story by Jude Webber on Sunday from the Apurimac-Ene valley on the growth of coca cultivation. It says that harvester Lucia Huarca can collect 66 pounds in a day "for which she is paid around US$3." Coca cultivation, the article says, "is thriving - even spreading." ... Today, the Globe and Mail (Canada) re-runs a Reuters story by Eduardo Orozco on small-scale miners from La Rinconada highlighting Peruvian miner Grimaldo Vargas. (See "Most Days are Bad" in October 23 below.)
OTHER BUSINESS
3 Just Drinks: San Juan brewing company profits drop 15.8% during the first three quarters of 2001
3 BNAmericas: Banco de Credito del Peru post net income of US$17mn in 3rd Quarter, up 218%
3 Business Wire: Exploration Sulliden Inc. receives "Mining Prospect of the Year 2001" award from "Peruvian Mining Merit Awards Committee"
3 Business Wire: Telefonica to introduce 2.5G technology based on IS-95B with speeds capable of 64kbps
3 PRNewswire: Parker Drilling announces net income of $4.5 million, or $0.05 per share, for third quarter of 2001
3 PRNewswire: Thrifty Car Rental plans to expand to Peru
3 Reuters: Telefonica: "healthy'' and has "operational growth" despite third-quarter net loss of S/.253 million ($72.3 million)
3 Reuters: El Platanal to be Peru's 2nd-biggest hydroelectric plant after (state-run) Mantaro; operational by 2005
ECONOMY
3 Reuters: Peru to auction S/.250 million (US$72.5 million) of 2-year sovereign bond issue next week; third and final tranche
3 Bloomberg: GDP expected to expand in 3rd Qtr; first rise in four quarters (includes chart)
TRAVEL NEWS The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (USA) and Delta Airline's press release report that Delta will limit passenger baggage to select Latin American cities, including Lima, beginning Nov. 1, 2001, and through Jan. 15, 2002. "Delta will allow a maximum of two checked bags and one carry-on item (plus one personal item)." ..... Internet Wire advances lowering rates for a December trip to Cuzco by FAR&WIDE Travel "14 nights, Was $1360 now $1156."
OF SPECIAL INTEREST In a book excerpt in The Times (London): "I am also less concerned in ascertaining the righteousness of particular wars - whether a murderous Pizarro in Peru (who calmly announced, "The time of the Inca is over") was better or worse than his murdering Inca enemies."
Tuesday October 30, 2001
ANTHRAX UPDATE In a USA State Department briefing, Richard Boucher stated that the mail with anthrax spores at the USA Embassy in Lima was received last Thursday and one of six diplomatic pouches was confirmed to be anthrax-laden on Sunday. Several sources report on yesterday's finding including the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, and the Washington Post. (See "Anthrax in Lima" below.) Of these, the Washington Post story adds the most additional information including: 1). the embassy mail went through "the contaminated State Department mail center in Sterling, Virginia." 2). it quotes a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Lima, Peru, saying "anthrax was on the interior of a canvas mailbag. None of the letters or packages inside was opened." 3). the mail picked up the anthrax spores through "incidental contact" as it passed through the State Department mailroom in Washington. Online (Ireland) was one of the few papers whose stories headlined the embassy.
RALLY FOR THE REPUBLIC EFE reports that "about 3,000 people attended a rally in Peru to support former President Alberto Fujimori" in Lima. The event was timed to commemorate the anniversary of the peace treaties with Ecuador, signed on Oct. 26, 1998, an event prominently highlighted at Fujimori's website.
BOTH FUN AND A DRAG The Gainesville Sun (Florida, USA) runs a piece on former Ambassador Dennis Jett (in Peru between 1996-1999) who recalls his experience of "narrowly missed being taken hostage during the MRTA raid at the Japanese embassy. Jett said he left the embassy 30 minutes before the terrorists embarked on their mission. "Being ambassador was fun and I enjoyed the responsibility," he said, "but it came with a certain amount of obligations and scrutiny, and sometimes it was a drag." ( Photo: The Gainesville Sun)
LESSONS TO LEARN Business Week reports on Latin America's relationship between terrorism and maintaining an open society. "In the 1980s, the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas were so ruthless that Peruvians initially applauded the government's tough anti-terrorism measures, which included summary trials for suspected terrorists before hooded judges. But the government cast such a wide net in that it wrongly imprisoned hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of people. Says Han Landolt of the Institute of Legal Studies in Lima, "Adoption of strict anti-terrorism legislation ... can degrade hard-won civil rights -- and they're difficult to win back."
STILL LANDLOCKED La Razon (Bolivia) reports that "the Bolivian Government wants to use gas as a key to recover a route out to the Pacific through Chile or Peru." Bloomberg (using a story in La Tercera, Chile) adds that
"Bolivia wants ocean access in exchange for picking Chile instead of Peru for pipeline's route. The project would mean building a liquefaction plant on Chile's coast, adding up to $1.5 billion of investment."
LESSONS LEARNED The Guardian (London) runs a column by George Monbiot who writes of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia (USA) which he calls "a terrorist training camp, whose victims massively outnumber the people killed by the attack on New York." Renamed recently as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the article says that General Juan Velasco Alvarado "benefited from the school's instruction" and "so did the leader of the Grupo Colina death squad in Fujimori's Peru."
INTEREST TOO HIGH Reuters reports that " interest rates for Peruvian borrowers will remain high because bad debts and nonperforming loans abound and the country's stagnant economy has failed to pull out of a three-year slump." Credits by Peruvian banks totaled about "9.5 billion in August, a 7.5 percent decline from the beginning of the year." The story includes comments from Mario Guerrero, (economist, Banco Wiese Sudameris), Jorge Chavez (President, Maximixe), Oscar Jasaui (Pacific Credit Rating Peru) and Central Bank members Richard Webb, Julio Velarde, and Kurt Burneo.
M2Presswire reports on the United Nations's First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) at which Peruvian Diplomat Hugo Flores commented on the draft text on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is based in Lima). The Centre, he said, "did its work in the first inhabited region that was free of nuclear weapons. In less than three years, the Centre had brought together more than 500 diplomats from a number of backgrounds to help in the work of bringing stability and development to the region."
SUMMIT PLANNING EFE and Radio Havana report that "Cabinet ministers and youth experts from 21 Ibero-American nations met Monday in Lima to draft a plan of action to improve the lives of 114 million Ibero-American children living in extreme poverty." (EFE) This plan will be presented at the upcoming XI Ibero-American Summit in November.
FLOODING IN JUNIN AFX and EFE report that at least 20 people are missing as a result of massive flooding in Junin. AFX says that "the storms destroyed 30 homes in the town of Jachahuanca," while EFE says that "the worst flooding took place in the village of Sacahuanca."
SPORTING NEWS Fox Sports reports that Luis Horna lost to Brazilian Alexandre Simone (6-4, 6-3) in the Ericcson Cup tennis tournament on clay courts in Santiago, Chile. (See also "Win Some, Lose Some" in Wednesday, October 24.) ..... The BBC reports that Newcastle United coach Bobby Robson "has grown increasingly frustrated at [Nolberto] Solano's continued involvement in the Peruvian national team, despite assurances from the player that he would scale down his international commitments." ..... TeamTalk reports that Peru's national team coach César Uribe has finalized the roster for Peru’s meeting with Argentina on November 7 and includes eight foreign-based players but does not include Solano.
OTHER BUSINESS
3 CCN Newswire: Southwestern Resources Corp to drill on Intihuatana Property, 410 km northwest of Arequipa
3 Asia Times: Ximo Electronic Appliances Co. receives regular orders from Peru
3 Stockhouse: Southern Peru Copper Co reports net earnings of $11.6 million for the 3rd quarter of 2001
JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN Ascribe News reports that " The Mummy Road Show" will be shown on the National Geographic Channel tomorrow which includes the " 'who, what, when, where, and why' of well-preserved corpses" in Peru, among other countries. Separately, Business Wire reports that Discovery Channel Store offers a Macro-Microscope, which "comes with 5 never-before-seen prepared slides, including a one-of-a-kind Real Peruvian Mummy fabric swatch!"
POLICE PICKPOCKETS Ananova reports on Canadian René Ouellet, the bicyclist who is aiming to travel the world on his bicycle without spending any money on accommodation. Ouellet says "he has been robbed only twice, once inside a Peruvian police station." (For news on Popy, another bicyclist touring Latin America, see "Two Continental Races" on Wednesday, October 17.)
Monday October 29, 2001
ANTHRAX IN LIMA AFX, EFE, the New York Times (using the Associated Press), and the New York Times (using Reuters) all report that " anthrax spores were found in a bundle of mail at the U.S. Embassy" in Lima. (EFE) AFX says that it was "a diplomatic pouch" that may was tested positive for the bacteria. Reuters says it was in a "mail bundle." The Associated Press says that "six mail bags at the U.S. Embassy in Peru were tested and one was found to contain traces of anthrax."
SURVIVING SELLING COFFEE Newsweek publishes an article, ostensibly about fair trade, and suggests that "the market for kinder, gentler capitalism is limited." The story opens with " coffee farmers of the Marmas Valley in northern Peru [who] are overcoming a crisis of historic proportions." However, "7,000 Peruvian growers are guaranteed premium prices for part of their crop by Fairtrade." The piece, by Newsweek's Joseph Contreras, reports that "the Association of Coffee Producing Countries abandoned its bid to become the industry's equivalent of OPEC and closed down operations two weeks ago."
LUCCHETTI JUDGE SUSPENDED JustFood, MSNBC and CNN.com report (all using Reuters) on Peruvian daily Liberacion's story on the 30-days-without-pay suspension of Jorge Barreto "a judge overseeing corruption charges against executives of Chilean pasta maker Lucchetti in a case linked to former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos." Barreto is one of six special anti-corruption judges investigating allegations tied to Fujimori and Montesinos. Senior Lucchetti executives have been seen negotiating in a Vladi-video.
GOOOOOOL!! MSNBC (using Reuters) reports that President Alejandro Toledo said that Peru had "scored a 'complete success' with more than US$1.8 billion in international financial aid secured last week" during his trip to Europe. "Peru has scored a goal in the international arena,'' Toledo said during a televised address upon his return to Lima.
NUN DIES IN CHILE EFE reports that Lita Castillo, "the Peruvian nun who was doused with kerosene and set on fire by a Chilean man, died Monday from burns covering 70 percent of her body." A suspect is in custody, but police are still trying to determine the motive for the crime.
MIRACLES IN NYC The Associated Press offers two photographs ( one, two) on yesterday's observance of Lord of the Miracles procession down 9th Ave. in New York City. Reuters offered two photographs ( one, two) of the Señor de los Milagros procession in Lima on October 18.
SPORTING NEWS Sportserver reports that Peruvian Raul Camarena came in 16th overall (4th in his division) in the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington DC with an official time of 2:38:36. Camarena was the first Peruvian (16 overall) in Lima's Metro Internacional 10k in 1997. .... The Guardian (London) and the Telegraph (London) report on Peruvian football player Claudio Pizarro's exploits. Playing for Bayern Munich, Pizarro twice "capitalised on defensive errors to take his season's tally to six." (Guardian)
BOOK REVIEW The Globe and Mail (Canada) interviews Ronald Wright, the author of "Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in Peru," about his new book, "Henderson's Spear."
REPRINT REDUX The Sydney Morning Herald reprints a lengthy piece from Saturday's New York Times on the power of jailed Vladimiro Montesinos. (See Keeping Power" in Saturday below.) Japan Today reprints yesterday's Reuters story on legally troubled Fernando Zevallos, the founder of AeroContinente. (See "Who's Sliming Who" yesterday.)
OTHER BUSINESS
3 Bloomberg: The Central Reserve Bank sold S/.25 million (US$7.2 million) in 6-month certificates of deposit at 6.56%
3 Stockhouse: Newmont Mining says Yanacocha, "one of the most deserving projects"
3 Bloomberg: Wayne Murdy, CEO of Newmont Mining Corp., on Yanacocha operating costs
3 Canada Newswire: PanAmerican Silver retires US$12 million loan used to finance the reconstruction of the Huaron mine
3 Gestion: Palmas Espino denounces dumping vegetable oils imports
3 Gestion: Avon to exceed sales forecast
3 Gestion: Court favors STM Wireless
3 BNAmericas: Government to offer construction of 2 gas pipelines to supply Cuzco with gas from Camisea
3 Gestion: INDECOPI authorized PSEG Global acquisition of the power company Electroandes
3 Gestion: Mining industry's production rises; 64% increase in September
3 Gestion: ComexPeru, Citibank, BSCH are most active players in Peru's forward exchange transactions market
3 Gestion: Cementos Lima's exports increase significantly
3 Gestion: Sugar company Pomalca results affected by a 16% product price decrease
3 Gestion: Expreso Cruz del Sur, road construction company, to become logistics operator
3 Gestion: Intradevco Industrial purchased Brystol Myers assets to build drug production laboratory
3 Gestion: Pluspetrol to supply nearly 100mil cubic feet of gas per day
3 El Comercio: 5 foreign companies (including Americans, Brazilians) interested in Casagrande and Tuman sugar cos.
3 Gestion: Antamina to export zinc concentrates in 30 days
3 Gestion: Machinery manufacturer Fima reverts accumulated losses
3 Gestion: Nextel & Bellsouth sign interconnection agreement; neither pay charges for calls between clients
3 Gestion: Osiptel announce tentative regulation for mobile telephony business
3 Gestion: Los Portales to invest US$12mil this year
3 Gestion: Teck Cominco: Cajamarquilla zinc refinery registers record production: 33,500 tons during 3rd quarter
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Los Angeles Times reports that USA Ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlin, during her college years, " chased down a pickpocket in Peru. Only afterward, when the villain was in police custody, did she discover that he carried a knife." She remain unscathed. ..... The Guardian (London) reports in a historical sketch on history of market crashes and their effects" that during the Tulipmania of the early 18th century, the British South Sea Trading Company fraudulently suggested they had "exclusive trading rights to four new ports in Chile and Peru which could be used to export gold mined in South America."
Sunday October 28, 2001
SEXUAL HARASSMENT SURVEYED EFE reports on a study by the Flora Tristan Institute that " Sixty percent of Peruvian working women have suffered sexual harassment in the workplace." The report also declared that "a 'black list' circulates among companies that carries the names of 'problematic people' - among them, women who have denounced instances of sexual harassment - in order to ensure they not be hired."
WHO'S SLIMING WHO? Reuters uses an in-depth look at "legal woes" of Fernando Zevallos, the founder of AeroContinente, who is accused of "links to drug running," to draw out a more systemic problem. "The perception used to be that the private sector corrupted the state, but with Montesinos that idea has been inverted to see the state corrupting the private sector,'' said sociologist Guillermo Rochabrun of Lima's Catholic University. Nevertheless, the Reuters story reminds that "No business leaders have so far been convicted of corruption."
TERROR ENTERS SUMMIT Xinhua reports that Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan declared that the 11th Ibero-American Summit to be held on November 23-24 in Lima "will focus on analyzing the global campaign against terrorism."
PANIAGUA IN PUERTO RICO EFE reports that former president Valentin Paniagua plans to attend the Ibero-American Congress on Labor Law and Social Security this week in Puerto Rico. "Participants will analyze the state of democracy in Peru and the effects of globalization, among other issues."
WOMEN'S COOP Newsday (New York) reruns a story from yesterday's Washington Times on an Indian weaving cooperative in Huancavelica which "lost an important source of income when [the Peruvian Trading Co.] office in the World Trade Center was destroyed." (See "Osama Affects Women's Coop" yesterday.)
EARLY ENDORSEMENT The Washington Times reports that the American-Peruvian Chamber of Commerce of Virginia has endorsed Mark Early, the Republican candidate for the governor of Virginia. The election is in early November.
VALDIVIA WINS! The New York Times reports that the winning jockey in last weekend's Breeders' Cup race was 27-year-old Jose Valdivia Jr., a native of Peru, riding Val Royal.
ALLENDE REVIEW The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune both review Isabel Allende's newest novel, "Portrait in Sepia." The Post's Jonathan Yardley writes that the "most powerful moments in this novel" are the "accounts of bitter, brutal engagements in the War of the Pacific (1879-84), when Chile invaded Peru." Allende writes of Chile's 19th century "reputation for civility in a continent of crude caudillos, systematic corruption and bloody revolutions," yet "Peruvians and Bolivians quickly came to fear the Chileans, bloodthirsty enemies capable of shooting or knifing the wounded and prisoners." In the Tribune, Margaret Knox writes that "We learn of the advent of Chilean wine-making [sic]."
NOBU REVIEW The Observer (London) favourably reviews Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa's first cookbook and includes his ceviche recipe which Nobu describes in his book in his book in this fashion: "The ceviche I learned to make in Peru is the ultimate Nobu fare, my absolute favourite. A combination of raw and cooked seafood, vegetables and spicy-sour ceviche sauce. Ceviche and beer is a match made in heaven." (For other Nobu reviews, see "Best Bass" in Wednesday, October 17 and "Three Times Books" in Sunday, October 14.)
BELL NO LONGER TOLLS The Los Angeles Times reports that a bell cast in Peru in 1818 by famed bell-maker Manuel Vargas " has gone silent." The historic, 2,000-pound Gloria bell called people to Mass at Mission San Luis Obispo for 183 years. However, "a crack in the iron bell has widened, possibly from the exertions of a new generation of bell ringers."
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Denver Post (USA) relates that on Tuesday, a lecture on the architectural features and subsurface excavations in the middle Chao Valley in northern Peru will be discussed at 6:30 p.m. by professor Jonathan Kent of Metropolitan State College of Denver. ..... People (UK) reports on the possibility of football player Nolberto Solano's team, Newcastle United "is prepared to off-load Solano in a straight swap - and Glenn Roeder is keen on the Peruvian wideman." ..... The Los Angeles reports that on Thursday, Peru's "banking and government offices will be closed or services curtailed" because of All Saints Day.
Saturday October 27, 2001
STREET VENDORS & MOLOTOVS EFE reports that "more than 20 people were hurt Friday, at least four of them wounded by gunfire, when police tried to evict street vendors from a marketplace in the residential Lima neighborhood of La Victoria."
STREET VENDORS & BIN-LADEN The Associated Press runs three photographs ( one, two, three) on Gerardo Calderon and Sara Fernandez, Lima street vendors who sell Osama bin Laden t-shirts because "they're 'in fashion' and are selling well."
OSAMA AFFECTS WOMEN'S COOP The Washington Times runs a piece from Huancavelica on an Indian weaving cooperative which "lost an important source of income when [the Peruvian Trading Co.] office in the World Trade Center was destroyed." The result has been the canceling of a Christmas season order for 200 sweaters. The Washington Times' own Andrew Benson describes Huancavelica as being, "12,000 feet up in the Andes at the end of a bone-jarring, 12-hour bus ride,"from Lima. (See yesterday's "Peru On Terrorism" for more stories on the relationship between Peru and contemporary terrorism.)
MASSACRE DETAILS The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, (using the Associated Press) follow up on yesterday's report from Amnesty International (AI) which centers around Rosa Rojas Borda whom AI brought to Japan and whose husband and son were killed in the "Barrios Altos Massacre" in 1991. Today's story adds gripping details: "A paramilitary death squad fired into a barbecue organized by residents of a poor Lima, Peru, neighborhood called Barrios Altos to raise funds for a new sewage pipe. Fifteen people were killed. Rojas Borda's husband Manuel and eight-year-old Javier were among the victims." (See "A Mother's Pressure" yesterday.)
PERUVIAN AT WTC The Washington Post has a front page story that includes the story of Paterson, New Jersey (USA) resident Kenny Lira, a Peruvian American who died on September 11 at the World Trade Center. Lira was, "a 28-year-old computer technician who worked on the 110th floor of the North Tower." The piece includes Lira's mother's reaction to this tragedy.
KEEPING POWER The New York Times (and the Miami Herald reprints) publishes a lengthy piece on the power of jailed Vladimiro Montesinos. Montesinos maintains, "a vast network of corruption that he honed [which] is proving so deeply entrenched in all of the society's major power centers." (The story covers page 3 in the print edition of the New York Times.) Carlos Tapia is quoted saying that Montesinos, "is still manipulating the political agenda." However, aside from quoting Tapia and Interior Minister Fernando Olivera, reporter Clifford Krauss uses few attributable quotes and instead offers informed speculation such as this: "There are already signs that the security forces have not responded to recent violent demonstrations and land invasions by peasant squatters as readily as they once did, as a sign of their latent discontent with the new government."
ZABARA PRIZE The Gulf News runs a piece on the first awarding of the Sheikh Zayed Award for Best World Human Spiritual Culture and Natural Heritage of which one of the two awards went to the Zabara National Society in Ecuador and Peru in recognition of their contributions to preserve indigenous heritage. The US$150,000 prize will be organised every two years.
FREEDOM GROWS The Los Angeles Times reports on the USA State Department annual list of religious persecution in countries around the world. While the Taliban in Afghanistan heads the list, Peru was included as a "countr[y] where an improving atmosphere [of religious freedom] was noted."
SUAVE AMBASSADOR The Philippine Star report that "the charming and suave Peruvian Ambassador Julio Cardenas Velarde" was spotted at the "Fiesta!" which opened the month-long Spanish Festival of Culture and the Arts. This is the same Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary who was recently a judge at the 2001 Miss Pilipinas-Universe.
TAXES TO COME DOWN Xinhua reports on the Andean Community (CAN) meeting to be held in Lima October 29-30 to discuss the reduction of the Common External Tariff (CET). "The CET came into force in 1995 and was adopted by Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela with levels of 5,10, 15 and 20 percent. Bolivia applied only 5 and 10 percent but Peru did not ratify it."
VENANCIO SHOT IN MIRAFLORES! News 24 (South Africa) runs a wire story on Diego Solorguen, a Peruvian businessman who, "was sentenced to two years in prison for shooting and killing a dog in a ruling unprecedented in Peru."
OTHER BUSINESS
3 Bloomberg: Santiago Millan, of HSBC Securities Inc., on outlook for risk ratings of Peru
3 Xinhua : Satmex Satellite to Cover Andean Region
3 Reuters: Southern Peru Copper reports 3rd quarter sales of US$696 million
3 BusinessWire: Significant capital expenditure requirements at Southern Peru Copper
3 Bloomberg: Foreign Reserves rise 0.4% to US$8.8 Bln
3 Bloomberg: Backus 3rd Qtr net drops 22% as sales decline
OF SPECIAL INTEREST EFE reports that "Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador ... has published his first art book, "Torero." The book, published in Spanish and English, "contains more than 175 black and white photos taken in Spain, Mexico, Peru and Colombia over the last three years." .... The New Haven Register (USA) reports that Yale University opened a new Environmental Science Center which, "will cradle ... artifacts from the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru." ..... The Guardian (London) reviews last nights " Ancient Secrets" on Channel 5 in England where "In Peru, the Incas encouraged people to jump into lakes."
Friday October 26, 2001
TOLEDO/KOIZUMI SAGA CONT. The Financial Times reports that Alejandro Toledo is, "increasingly concerned that Peru's demand for the extradition of Alberto Fujimori ... could damage relations with Japan." FT offers information from "a senior diplomatic source" who claimed that Toledo would "go gently" on the extradition dispute. The piece also quotes '"analysts" saying that, "attracting foreign investment and aid to boost the flagging economy is higher on the political agenda" than extraditing Fujimori from Japan. "According to Peruvian estimates, Japan bought Peruvian goods worth more than $1.4bn last year."
TOLEDO AND AZNAR The Associated Press follows President Toledo with a photograph in the company of Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
ECONOMY IN THE DOLDRUMS BNAmericas reports that according to Latin American credit rating agency PCR chairman Oscar Jasaui, "Peru's economic recession is continuing to drag down the performance of the country's banks, with little improvement in sight." The Toledo economic plan, "has so far failed to deliver," continued Jasaui, and the Fujimori/Montesinos scandal "has been handled as a ' soap opera'."
Separately, the Voice of America runs a lengthy piece on Latin America's economy and quotes USB Warburg economist Michael Gavin who states that, "People are less aware that Peru is in essentially as deep and as long-lasting a recession [as Chile]."
BUDGETARY PRESSURE EFE reports that Peru's intelligence service "decreased its budget to $2.5 million, a third of what it was" during Vladimiro Montesinos tenure. EFE adds that, "the number of secret service employees has dropped from more than 2,500 to 450." Intelligence chief Admiral Alfonso Panizo made these comments to refute recent Fujimori's web site claims.
A MOTHER'S PRESSURE Agence France Press, the Japan Times, MSNBC (using a Reuters story), and the Voice of America, report that Amnesty International (AI) is focusing on Japan's refusal to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, saying Tokyo, "should either hand him over or investigate the charges of rights abuses." (Reuters) The stories center around Rosa Rojas Borda whom AI brought to Japan and whose husband and son were killed in the "Barrios Altos Massacre" in 1991. Reuters accompanies the article with two photographs ( one, two) of Ms. Rojas Borda as does the Associated Press ( one, two).
CAMET CAUGHT? EFE reports that former Minister of Economy Jorge Camet was, "accused by a Congressional committee of embezzling public funds by speedily authorizing a financial transaction to purchase spare parts for military aircraft." (Photo: Caretas)
PERU ON TERRORISM EFE reports on a talk in Denver, Colorado (USA) by Alejandro Bermudez, director of Peru's Catholic News Agency and a terrorism expert, on "Terrorism in Latin America: Lessons for the United States." Bermudez said that the USA, "cannot and must not ignore Latin America in the war against terrorism, because the destabilization of that region presents even bigger problems than the destabilization of the Middle East." Separately, The Black World Today offers a column by Pacific News Service writer Andrés Tapia datelined Lima on post-September 11 Peru. "Rumors fly that the U.S. embassy is offering $15,000 to anyone who signs up to fight the Taliban. ... These rumors, of course, are false. But they reflect the fear that, even in faraway Peru, no one is immune to terrorist attacks attributed to Al-Qaeda."
A New York Daily News columnist relates a story told to him by a Peruvian limo driver of his aunt in Lima weeping for New York City because "There needs to be someplace your children or grandchildren can go someday and be free enough to make lives of their own choosing."
HALLOWEEN COMES EARLY The Inter-Press Service reports on opposition lawmakers who were allied with Fujimori and who are now claiming that investigations into their political history has turned into a "witch-hunt." Although this is a dated story, no other English-language media has covered it yet.
PERU: NO BOLIVIAN COWS! EFE reports that "after a series of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Bolivia, Peruvian health officials announced the implementation of new controls along the Bolivian border to prevent the spread of the highly contagious livestock disease." EFE's details come from Peru's National Agricultural Health Service (SENASA).
PERU: FRIEND OF FISH The Financial Times and M2PressWire report that the World Wildlife Foundation offered evidence that government fishing subsidies amount to billions of dollars more than previously proven creating a fishing capacity might be "two-and-a-half times the level needed for sustainable fishing levels." Peru, among other countries, "have brought pressure for the WTO to open negotiations on fishing subsidies," says M2PressWire. FT says that for this, WWF calls these countries, " friends of fish."
PERUVIANS LIKE (NOT LOVE) EGGS El Universal (Mexico) runs a story on a report by the Chilean Association of Egg Producers which states that Peruvians, "eat an average of 80 eggs per year." This is about a quarter of the 355 eggs the average Japanese person eats, the #1 egg-eaters in the world.
CONGRATULATIONS The Freedom Forum announces that Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), presented its Grand Prize for Press Freedom to El Comercio, La Republica, La Industria de Trujillo and Caretas for, "battl[ing] harassment, attacks and intimidation during the administration of Alberto Fujimori."
NOT SO SPORTING NEWS SoccerNet reports that. "Newcastle United's Nolberto Solano has been left out by Peru for next month's World Cup qualifier in Argentina. But Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro has been recalled." Peruvian Coach Julio Cesar Uribe says that "There is no difference or row between [Solano and I], it's simply a technical decision. Please don't turn this into a soap opera."
OTHER BUSINESS
3 Xinhua (China): Ximo Electronic Appliances Company receives regular orders from Peru and Chile
3 El Comercio (Peru): Pluspetrol is interested in 3 oil & gas wells
3 Reuters: Analyst: "Peru may have more luck with its [gas] export aspirations and could start exporting to Japan"
3 Gestion (Peru): Aceros Arequipa signed letter of intention to be supplied with gas
3 EFE (Spain): Peruvian mining production up 18 percent year-to-date
3 Gestion (Peru): Ceper to resume exports with loan of US$6mil
3 EFE (Spain): Coffee exports expected to fall 5.4% in 2001
3 BusinessWire (USA): Pierina Mine produced 264,586 oz. of gold in 3rd quarter
3 Gestion (Peru): MolyCop Adesur to build new plant in Lima
3 Reuters: Peru brewer Backus net slips in 3rd quarter
3 Reuters: Southern Peru net dives in 3rd quarter
3 Reuters: Peru's Pacasmayo profit slides in 3rd quarter
3 Gestion (Peru): Electroandes can only be sold to AES
3 Guardian (UK): Anthony Turner, ( Minsur, Peru): "Major producers are deeply concerned about these illegal activities which are causing extreme environmental damage while having a severely depressing effect on tin prices."
3 Gestion (Peru): Laboratorios Bussie to enter Peruvian drugs market
3 Reuters: Electricity output up 4.8% in September
3 Gestion (Peru): Nextel suggests single interconnection fee
Thursday October 25, 2001
GROUNDED! CNN.com reports that Fernando Zevallos, the founder of AeroContinente, "denied links to ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos a day after a judge charged the executive in a corruption probe and barred his exit from the country." EFE adds that this could have, "ramifications for a Chilean money laundering probe of the airline." (See more news on AeroContinente in "Other Business" today, below. For more on Zevallos, see "Innocent Flier" on Tuesday, October 23.)
TOLEDO AND AZNAR DO MEET EFE reports on the meeting between President Alejandro Toledo and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in Madrid where Aznar declared that, "Spain would provide political and economic support to Peru during its democratic transition. (For intrigue on the Toledo/Aznar meeting, see yesterday's "Technical Difficulties" below.)
CATCHING UP ON TOLEDO/KOIZUMI The New York Times plays catch up with a paragraph titled "Confusion Over Trial For Fujimori" which reports that, "the Japanese Foreign Ministry denied that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had told President Alejandro Toledo of Peru that Peru's ex-president, Alberto K. Fujimori, could be tried in Japan." (See "Change in View?" on October 23 for a fuller and a more timely reporting.)
WHERE'S THE MONEY II The Japan Times runs yesterday's Reuters story on Fujimori's alleged misuse of funds. (See "Where's The Money" yesterday.)
NOT WELL HIDDEN EFE reports that Paul von Diyiik, 35, a Dutch citizen was arrested at Jorge Chavez airport in Lima, "with 5.2 kilos of pure cocaine hidden in his luggage."
DIPLOMATIC DISPATCHES M2PressWire reports that that Peru's First Secretary at the United Nations Alfredo Chuquihuara spoke before the UN's Third Committee on children saying that, "one of the basic objectives of [the Peruvian] government had been the promotion and protection of human rights for all. ... It had consistently implemented measures which addressed the universality of those rights and also ensured the welfare of girls, boys and adolescents, whose future depended on the development opportunities offered them today." He also announced that, "the Third Ibero-American Conference of Ministers and Senior Executives Responsible for Childhood and Youth would be held in Lima on 29 and 30 October."
Separately, M2Presswire report s that Maria Arce spoke at the United Nation's Fourth Committee and declared that among Peru's interest in Outer Space was "the mapping and mitigation of natural disasters." See also "Permanently in Space", Tuesday, October 22.
MAYORS MEET IN MEXICO EFE reports that Peruvian mayors are among those attending Ibero-American Organization for Inter-Municipal Cooperation (OICI) in Guadalajara, Mexico.
BUILDINGS FALL EFE reports on a roof collapsing over a classroom collapsed in Trujillo, killing four students and injuring 30 others. The building was, "the ' San Carlos y San Marcelo' school, which dated back to the 17th century."
Separately, CNN.com and the New York Times report on a collapsed 20-story building in Manhattan which left five dead and eleven others injured. One of the injured was Gary Hernandez, a Peruvian immigrant who said to CNN that, "most of the injured or killed men were from Mexico and Ecuador."
PRISONERS OF THE SUN The Age (Australia) reprints a book review on "Tintin: The Complete Companion" which explains that a character in the comic strip, Rascar Capac, "comes directly from a photograph of a desiccated mummy that presumably can still be seen in a museum in Peru."
OTHER BUSINESS
3 SABI: AeroContinente opens subsidiaries in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and the USA
3 Bloomberg: Copper output rose 64% in September; gold, zinc, tin and silver output also increased (includes chart with breakdown)
3 JustDrinks.com: Coffee exports will fall 5% year-on-year in 2001 to US$210 million
3 EFE: Cementos Lima exported 330,000 tons to Chile, Central America and USA; 60% to USA
3 Gaceta de los Negocios: Spanish cos. Iberdrola and Union Fenosa are interested in Electro Norte Medio, Electro Centro, Electro Norte and Electro Noroeste.
3 SABI: Osiptel to develop mass Internet use in the countryside
3 PetroleumWorld: Pluspetrol of Argentina is putting the spotlight on its natural gas ambitions in Peru
3 SABI: California International, which produces OTC and other drugs, to enter Peruvian market next year
3 Jerusalem Post: Court ordered suspension of Gilat's $27.8 million contract to build phone network in Peru
3 Canada Newswire: Gitennes Exploration to sell interest Virgen gold property
3 BNAmericas: Teck Cominco defers Cajamarquilla decision
3 SABI: The International Finance Corporation will acquire 15% stake in Interseguro, owned by Interbank
3 SABI: Edegel's profits decrease up to 3rd quarter
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Chicago Tribune suggests that among other " great gifts that won't wallop your wallet" are "the antiqued, reverse-painted, glass jewelry box from Peru ($48)" from Ebiza.com and "a cheery Peruvian acrylic scarf with pouches at both ends to keep hands warm ($44)" from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. ..... The Lost Angeles Times announces that a, " Peruvian Paso Horse Show will start at 9 a.m. at Fairplex in Pomona" this Saturday. ..... The New York Times, in its Food Section's Q&A, answers this question: "What is your guess of the success rate for cultivation of yucca in the temperate climate of Bergen County, N.J.? I have come to enjoy this imported root staple after introduction by my Peruvian friends."
WEDNESDAY October 24, 2001
DOGS ARE NOBLE Both MSNBC and the Scotsman run a Reuters story headlined: " Bald Dog Peru's National Treasure." The story quotes Congress' declaration in El Peruano that, "the agriculture ministry with this law will order ... the conservation, breeding, and export of the ‘Peruvian hairless dog’." The dogs have been, " elevated to national heritage status under political orders to ensure it never becomes extinct." The story does not refer to their other name: Peruvian Inca Orchids.
ARE INCAS NOBLE? EFE reports that Inka Roca, a Cuzco organization has asked Toledo, "to recognize Inca nobility as an institution." One of Inka Roca's goals is, "to obtain official recognition so that it can serve as a representative to countries that formed part of the Inca empire.
QUESTIONABLE EXPOSE The Financial Times reports that, "Peru has been under the spotlight as a possible safe haven for other terrorists since the assault on the US." Listed as proof: Toledo's arrest of three men "of Middle Eastern descent" shortly after September 11; and the "Tarata Street bomb." Reporter Paul Keller writes that, "Peruvian intelligence last week confirmed that men linked to ... al-Qaeda used Peru as a 'transit point'." Keller was late in reporting a news conference by intelligence chief Admiral Alfonso Panizo (see "Playing Catch Up" on October 18, below) and his " last week" was really on October 10 (see "Terror Seen From Lima" on October 12, in Peruvia's Archive). For some reason, he sees fit to recall in this context that Fernando Rospigliosi, Interior Minister in Toledo's "centre-left administration" was, " a former Trotskyist revolutionary." For a better analysis of recent Shining Path activity and the Toledo's administration's response, see EFE in yesterday's "Terrorism and Peru."
COME TO COLCA MSNBC and CNN.com pick up a Reuters story that promotes tourism in the Colca Canyon, "the world's second deepest gorge that gives birth to the mighty Amazon River, could give the Andean nation's struggling economy a needed boost if growth in tourism can be kindled." The canyon's depths reach 11,110 feet and stretches more than 60 miles, " nearly twice the size of the U.S. Grand Canyon."
LEAVING EARLY? Bloomberg reports that, "Several Peruvian legislators may quit President Alejandro Toledo's Pais Posible party after complaining that the party leadership doesn't allow them to express an individual opinion." The story is based reporting in Gestion. The party has 47 seats in the 120-member Congress.
WHERE'S THE MONEY? CNN.com reports that Congressman Xavier Barron has, "called for an investigation into [Fujimori's misuses of] donations from Japan for the victims of a 1997 shootout at the Japanese ambassador's residence." Barron uses the case of Marina Collado, the widow of Army Col. Juan Valer who died in the raid, who has only received $43,687 "rather than the $100,000 Fujimori publicly promised for each victim's family." Separately, EFE reports that, "Spanish businessman Jose Luis Sanchis worked directly with former presidential adviser Vladimiro Montesinos" during the 2000 election.
USING BETTER NUMBERS The New York Times reports in summary fashion, on the monies being received in Europe and the Inter-American Development Bank. Reporter Clifford Krauss uses 270,000 as the number of jobs to be created by Toledo's program. An erroneous figure of 49,000 was published in an earlier Times story. (See "The Times Late Again" on Friday, October 12 in Peruvia's Archive.)
SCHEDULING DIFFICULTIES EFE reports that " Toledo has cancelled a working breakfast scheduled for Wednesday with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, citing 'technical problems.' " EFE says that, "Peruvian officials informed the Spanish government that the undisclosed problems would prevent Toledo from pausing in Madrid, after his plane made an initial stopover in Moscow." (See "Change in View?" in October 23 below for the international miscommunication between Toledo and Koizumi.)
SCHEDULING DIFFICULTIES, PART 2 EFE and Granma (Cuba) report that a meeting of health ministers to prepare the health agenda of the Ibero-American Summit will not take place in Lima but rather in Havana on Oct. 25-26. Granma adds that "Cuba offered to host the meeting because Peru was experiencing some difficulties organizing the conference because of the change of government there.
MINING BY THE OUNCE MSNBC runs yesterday's Reuters piece on small-scale gold mining. (See in "Most Days Are Bad" in October 23 below.)
OTHER BUSINESS
3 SABI: Fitch predicts that Southern Peru Copper will remain competitive despite metal price decrease
3 WSRN: Teck Cominco reports third quarter earnings of $17 million
3 SABI: SBS confirms merger between Banco Financiero and NBK Bank; Banco Nuevo Mundo to be liquidated
3 SABI: Power co. Edelnor posts net profit of S/.16.2mil in 3rd qrtr
3 BNAmericas: Antamina mine expects to make its first zinc shipment "within the next month or so"
3 SABI: Furniture maker Basa increased production by 9% between July/September 2001; income increased by 5.5%
3 SABI: Reyemsa (Recipientes, Envases y Estampados Metalicos) to export to Bolivia, Ecuador
3 OilOnLine.com: Parker Drilling announced a four-well contract with Pluspetrol in Camisea gas field.
3 SABI: Industrias Vencedor will build adhesives producing plant that will start up early next year
3 E-News: Manhattan Minerals declares progress in resolving social concerns in Tambo Grande
3 SABI: Environmental impact studies on Camisea's gas transportation to be discussed by public hearings
3 Electronic Banker: AT&T Latin America's client roster includes Interbank, Asbanc and Banco Sudamericano
3 SABI: Searler to consolidate its Latin America market; to enter American, European markets in 3 years time.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME 1). Xinhua reports that Luis Horna lost (6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-1) in the first round of the Ericcson Cup in Sao Paulo. 2). EFE reports that Sporting Cristal defeated Mexico's Santos Laguna 2-1 in the Merconorte Cup. 3). The St. Vincent Herald (Antigua) reports that Ines Melchor won the silver medal in the 5,000 metre race at the 2001 Junior Pan American Track and Field Championship on Saturday in Santa Fe, Argentina. Melchor's time of 17:28.18 was six seconds behind the gold.
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Rocky Mountain News (Colorado, USA) reports on 30-year old Peruvian-American Renatto Linares, who is a chaplain's assistant, a US Army Master Sergeant, and a Muslim.
TUESDAY October 23, 2001
CHANGE IN VIEW UPDATE (See following paragraph below for earlier story.) EFE reports that "Japanese officials Tuesday denied Peruvian press reports they were looking into the possibility of putting former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori." A separate EFE piece goes with Justice Minister Fernando Olivera's comments from Lima opposed the idea of attempting to prosecute former President Alberto Fujimori in Japan. The Washington Times reports on the Toledo/Koizumi meeting, doesn't mention Fujimori, but is the only story to quote Toledo.
CHANGE IN VIEW? Contrary to reports published yesterday, EFE reports that "the Peruvian government considers that Japan has altered its position and now accepts that former President Alberto Fujimori may be guilty of corruption and abuse of human rights." ( Reuters and Xinhua run later, similar stories. The Miami Herald a summary of the Reuters piece.) EFE suggests that during the Toledo/Koizumi meeting in Shanghai, "the Japanese leader said that, if Fujimori is to be tried, it should be in Japan." This is a "step forward," according to Peruvian Prime Minister Roberto Dañino said. Nevertheless, Dañino "is opposed to Fujimori being tried in a Japanese court." Dañino is in Madrid and did not attend the Shanghai meetings.
THE DANI-O/KUCZYNSKI TOUR Reuters reports that Prime Minister Roberto Dañino and Economy Minister Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski's search for international donations during a European tour, "have been more generous than originally hoped for." Dañino said that, "In terms of donations, ... we're already above US$500 million. In concessional loans we are already around $200 million," from 18 donor nations and four multilateral organizations. These funds are "earmarked for a campaign to create jobs and curb poverty." The European Union states that they have contributed "over EURO 100 million to the Peruvian social emergency programme 'A Trabajar.' Peru is already one of the largest recipients of Commission aid to Latin America."
SEND HIM HOME AllAfrica.com reports that delegates at the 10th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, "In a four-page declaration, ... urged Japan to extradite Alberto Fujimori" to Peru. The conference brought together 1,300 delegates from some 143 countries and was attended by Fernando Olivera. (See "Already in Prague," Monday, October 12, 2001 in Peruvia's Archives.)
SEND HIM BACK AllAfrica Global Media reports that delegates at the 10th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, "In a four-page declaration, ... urged Japan to extradite Alberto Fujimori" to Peru. The conference brought together 1,300 delegates from some 143 countries and was attended by Fernando Olivera. (See "Already in Prague," Monday, October 12, 2001 in Peruvia's Archives.)
TERRORISM AND PERU 1). EFE reports that "a Peruvian army unit captured three alleged leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla group in the jungles of Huanuco province." An army spokesman added that "the army was resuming its anti-guerrilla operations."
2). Agence France Press reports that "last month's airborne suicide attacks on the United States have claimed more unwitting victims, draining any remaining sympathy away from jailed US radicals' pleas of innocence." A committee lobbying for Lori Berenson's release believes that her case "could be harmed." Says Gail Taylor, national coordinator of the Washington-based C ommittee to Free Lori Berenson, "We don't want people to think Lori Berenson equals Osama bin Laden."
INNOCENT FLIER Reuters reports that Fernando Zevallos, the founder of AeroContinente, said "there was no evidence to back charges that he was linked to drug trafficking and a criminal organization" and that the charges were linked to irregularities in the "corruption-riddled" Fujimori administration. AeroContinente controls 60 percent of Peru's airline industry. (See also a previous Reuters story on AeroContinente going to Madrid in "Flying High" on Thursday, Oct. 18 below.)
MOST DAYS ARE BAD Reuters runs a story on small-scale miners from La Rinconada highlighting Peruvian miner Grimaldo Vargas. "Some 14% of the 4.7 million ounces of gold extracted each year in Peru, which leads Latin America in gold production and boasts the region's biggest mines, is mined by small-scale miners," says Reuters. "On a good day, the miners say they can extract up to a seventh of an once of gold, which will earn them some US$24." On bad days they return home empty-handed.
PERMANENTLY IN SPACE M2Presswire reports that the United Nation's Outer Space Committee had reached consensus agreement on terminating the Peru's sharing of a rotating seat on the Committee and that Peru, among other nations would now become a permanent member. These discussions took place before the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), "as it began considering international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space."
OTHER BUSINESS
3 EFE: Shell considers energy and mining projects in Peru
3 SABI: Nabisco will export cookies to Colombia
3 SABI: Iccgsa to finish Olmos-Corralquemado road early
3 SABI: Construction companies Iccgsa (Peru) and Tecsa (Chile) form strategic alliance and create a new company called Ictesa
3 Stockhouse: GE supplies compression trains for Camisea
3 Stockhouse: Andean American Mining completes the 1st stage of exploration on the Santa Rosa Property
3 BNAmericas: Parker Drilling signed a contract with Pluspetrol in Peru's Camisea gas field
3 SABI : Tans Airlines to expand to Tarapoto, Jauja, Bellavista and Requena
3 SABI: AT&T, Bellsouth complain about Telefonica's poor interconnection services
3 SABI: Power company Edelnor raised S/.100mil (US$28.6mil) through bonds issue
3 SABI: Visa's credit cards sales at US$4.8bil during past fiscal year ending June 2001, a 12% increase
3 SABI: School textbook sales will grow by 5% next year, after having decreased by 15% last year, predicts a publisher
3 BusinessWire: STM Wireless announced Peruvian court injunction against OSIPTEL and Gilat-To-Home Peru
3 E-Hospitality.com: Through March 2002, a 3-Night Stay for price of two at Miraflores Park Hotel - Lima, Peru
FRIDAY October 19, 2001
SHANGHAI'D, PART 2 EFE reports that "though both Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo say they would like to meet, tight scheduling has precluded that the two leaders set an official meeting during the 9th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Shanghai." EFE also reports that, "Nonetheless, both leaders hope to find time to meet unofficially during the summit." An earlier EFE story (in Spanish) said Koizumi was "studying" the possibility of meeting with Toledo."
SMALLER SUMMIT EFE reports that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) representative Vladimir Radovic and Peruvian Economy Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski signed an agreement in Lima yesterday that will provide Peru "with a $23.3 million credit to finance the second phase of a land titling program." Separately, an IDB press release yesterday "announced the approval today of a $1 million grant to Arequipa, Peru, to enable the city to finance preparatory steps to modernize the city's transportation system."
THE COLOMBIAN CONNECTION EFE reports that Montesinos had 120 agents in Colombia, " spying on the armed forces and leftist guerrillas for the United States, " according to a new Vladi-video. On the tape, Montesinos suggests to ex-vice president Francisco Tudela that, "the United States does not recruit Colombian agents 'because they fear corruption ...' "
SAY IT ISN'T SO, PART 2 The Guardian (London), the New York Times, MSNBC and CNN.com pick up yesterday's story (see below) linking Peruvian soccer superstar Hector Chumpitaz to Montesinos. Peruvian press begin to report on stories linking Nene Cubillas.
CONGRESS MOVING 1). The Associated Press (in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and MSNBC) reports that a Peruvian congressional committee "agreed late Wednesday to ask the full legislature to vote on lifting Fujimori's constitutional immunity." Charges are also expected to be lodged against ex-Defense Minister Carlos Bergamino, former Prime Minister Federico Salas and former Finance Minister Carlos Boloña Behr. "They could face six to 10 years in prison if convicted."
2). Meanwhile, Reuters and Bloomberg report that yesterday, Congress "passed a law extending a 2 percent payroll tax ... until August 2002 to help balance the budget -- backtracking on government plans to eliminate it by next year." (Reuters) Bloomberg also says that Toledo cut the tax to 2 percent from an original 5 percent and had campaigned on eliminating it within a year.
GENDER DEBATE M2Presswire reports that Carmen Rosa Arias, Peru's Second-Secretary at the United Nations, spoke before the UN's Third Committee during a debate on women's issues and said, "Peru was committed to working toward gender equality and implementing standards within the domestic laws of the country. A major obstacle in Peru was poverty, and the government was working with civil society to establish a welfare system based on three criteria -- literacy, health and food security."
"NO TERRORISM IN PERU" The Chicago Tribune reports on Henry Kissenger's optimistic belief about winning the struggle against terrorism. Kissenger said, "Winning this war means separating the terrorists from state support to the greatest extent possible. ... It will take time, but it is possible. It has succeeded in countries like ... Peru. A piece in yesterday's Financial Times story seems to question this view.
looks back at those who died in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in which Peruvian Wilfredo Mercado died. The piece interviews families of those who perished and reports that, "Only Mr. Mercado's widow, Olga ... could not be located for this article."
MUMMY'S SAFE Archaeology Magazine reports that the June earthquake in southern Peru "all but destroyed" the Centro Mallqui near Ilo. "Luckily, the mummy collection at the center and the adjacent museum suffered little damage, and although the remains of the center have now been bulldozed, there is hope that the it will be rebuilt."
OTHER BUSINESS Companies or industries which had news on the wires today include: Andean American Mining, Antapite, cement, Falabella, Hewlett Packard, Jorbsa, internet access, Minera El Brocal, new oil wells, Osiptel, TecnoInvest, and Unibanca.
THE BEST PAPAS The Chicago Tribune judges where the best papas rellenas can be had in Chicago. A "fine" version can be had at the 'Rinconcito' chain of Peruvian restaurants, but the "most spectacularly yummy papa rellena" is from 'Taste of Peru' in Rogers Park. An electronic version of this story appeared earlier at the Tribune.
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Yomiuri Shinbum (Tokyo) reports that in the last decade, Peruvians living in Japan have doubled in number to 46,171. ... The Telegraph (London) reports that "eleven-year-old Valvina Joyo Cossi is in intensive care in Cusco, Peru, after being savaged by a circus lioness. Police shot the animal dead when it leapt on her and bit her head." .... The Guardian (London) describes Scottish Tory Eric Forth this way: "He dresses very smartly but somehow in a fashion that isn't quite right; ... you expect him to try to sell you shares in an as yet undiscovered Peruvian gold mine." ... Agence France Press reports on the remote South seas island nation of Niue (pop. 2000) where in 1868 the notorious Bully Hayes had "the custom to kidnap islanders and take them to Peru ... to work in mines and on sugar cane." Unison (Ireland) reports on "the annual 'Copper Race' in aid of the Loreto Missions in Peru." ... Reuters offers two photographs ( one, two) of yesterday's annual Señor de los Milagros procession.
THURSDAY October 18, 2001
SHANGHAI'D Although there is still no word whether a Toledo-Koizumi summit has been arranged at the 9th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Russian news agency Tass is reporting that there is a summit scheduled between Foreign Ministers Diego Garcia Sayan and Igor Iganov.
EXTENSIVE AND IMPORTANT EFE reports that newly arrived OAS Ambassador Eduardo Ferrero declared that Peru's agenda before the OAS "is extensive and important." Among some of his initiatives will be "a new hemispheric security concept and defense expenditure cuts."
SAY IT ISN'T SO! Reuters runs a piece linking Peruvian soccer superstar Hector Chumpitaz to Montesinos. Chumpitaz, 57, has been placed under house arrest after being allegedly seen in a Vladi-video, agreeing to receive US$10,000 a month.
NOT LAURA! EFE reports that "Peruvian television personality Laura Bozzo was questioned by agents of DININCRI, the investigative branch of the National Police, for almost five hours, though the purpose of the questioning is still not known." She is accused of receiving "about $14,500 per month."
PLAYING CATCH-UP The Financial Times does double duty on Peru today but only because it is catching up with old news. In the first report from Quito, FT catches up with yesterday's news (see below) on Toledo's summit with Ecuador's Noboa (seen together in this Associated Press photograph). The story adds a few details on budget numbers. "Peru's budget for 2002 will reduce defence spending by 11 per cent but Ecuador ... will spend more on all its ministries, including defence." However, Noboa says that these monies will "pay salaries and support the military's work in 'social projects' rather than purchasing arms." A Bloomberg story from Quito reports that Toledo "proposed an accord to eliminate custom duties between the two countries before the end of next year."
The second FT story is from Lima where Paul Keller catches up with news from last Friday (see the Associated Press story in "Terror Seen From Lima" in Peruvia's Archive) and reports that "Peru continues to face security threats from international drug traffickers, Colombian and Peruvian left-wing guerrillas, organised crime, social unrest, and even from Islamic extremist groups who apparently passed through Peru two years ago." The story is centered around a news conference by Peruvian Admiral Alfonso Panizo, the head of the new National Intelligence Council, that took place a week ago today. EFE runs a piece from La Paz on two MRTA members "convicted in the kidnapping of a Bolivian businessman who will have to post a $150,000 bond for their release after spending six years in prison."
PLAYING CATCH-UP 2 The Miami Herald runs a story on Toledo's decline in popularity polls that sounds a lot like the story that ran in the Financial Times on Tuesday. The Herald uses a University of Lima poll that puts the president at 43% (the Financial Times used Apoyo's numbers which came in at 41%). Some how the editors at the Miami paper let this gaffe slide: "Toledo's electoral campaign was " Toledo Trabajo'' (Toledo means jobs)."
DEMOCRATIC FATIGUE The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer asks in his column today, " Is there 'democratic fatigue'' in Latin America? Is disillusion over free-market economic reform translating into a general frustration with Western-styled democracy?" Among his examples is that "in Peru's second-round presidential elections last year, 50 percent of registered voters either abstained from voting or cast null-and-void votes." One possibility however, is that "Latin American voters simply doing what so many American voters do, which is to stay away from the polls."
BRIEF SUMMARY The monthly World Press Review offers two articles on Peru in their latest issue which focuses on terrorism. First there is a piece by Federico Salazar, of Gestión, who says, "Barbarity cannot be changed with more barbarity, but with civilization." The second piece is by Carlos Basombrío Iglesias, writing in Ideele, who writes, "We need to defend the values that are being attacked and not destroy them in the name of fighting the enemy."
FLYING HIGH Reuters reports that AeroContinente has been given the "green light to begin flights to Europe, starting with the Lima-Madrid route ... the first to Europe by a Peruvian airline in 30 years." In a press conference, Carlos Morales, CEO of the airline, said that he "hoped to expand its European schedule next year to include London, Lisbon, Rome and Paris." The Madrid flight would go through Caracas. Reuters does not mention Aerocontinente's founder Fernando Zevallos and his problems with the law. (See Bloomberg in Sunday, October 7, "Entrepreneur Formally Charged" in Peruvia's Archives.)
TRI-SPORTS MINDED 1). The Bermuda Sun reports that Peruvian Luis Olcese finished fourth in the Sunfish World Championships held in Antigua. Olcese was one of three Peruvian Olympians at Sydney 2000. 2). The Associated Press (in the Washington Post and Canada's National Post) highlights Peruvian forward Claudio Pizzaro who scored yesterday for Bayern Munich. 3). Xinhua reports on the first round draws for the 2002 Davis Cup. Peru will play against Guatemala February 8-10.
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Washington Post reports on a potter, Jonathan Adler, who produces his "affordable 'Pot A Porter' line" of pottery in Peru.
WEDNESDAY October 17, 2001
ABSENCE OF AMNESTY CNN.com, using the Associated Press, reports that "Peru's highest military court overturned an amnesty law on Tuesday, opening the way for the prosecution of former paramilitary death squad members accused of committing two massacres in the early 1990s." The two massacres detailed are La Cantuta and the Colina group.
GOODBYE QUITO MSNBC and Xinhua report that Alejandro Toledo wrapped up his trip to Ecuador (before flying to China for the APEC meetings) where MSNBC says he "urged Ecuador to slash military spending and focus on fighting poverty." Xinhua quotes Peru's Defense Minister David Waisman saying that "the main position suggests that both countries dismantle their bases near the border, which would be one of the first steps toward gaining mutual confidence." However, Toledo's "proposal received a lukewarm reaction from Ecuador's President Gustavo Noboa," says MSNBC. EFE reports that ex-President Alberto Fujimori "does not regret" signing the peace accord with Ecuador in 1998. Quoting from Fujimori's website, EFE reports Fujimori saying: "My hand did not shake when I signed my name on the agreement that would seal the treaty definitively, despite the flag-waving critics who opted for an armed peace...by the spilling of blood and destruction on the border."
HELLO SHANGHAI The 9th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Shanghai have begun and the Peruvian delegation, led by Patricia Teullet Pipoli, the Vice-Minister of Economy, met with the Chinese foreign minister. The Associated Press reports (in the Washington Post, MSNBC, and ABCNews.com) that when Toledo arrives, he will prioritize trade and investment issues over deportation and Fujimori issues in any talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. This is categorically opposite to what Reuters reported yesterday (see below). However, while Toledo's meetings with Presidents Bush, Jiang and Fox are confirmed, his foreign ministry was still "working on a possible meeting" with the Japanese Prime Minister. The article adds that "Peru does not have the international clout to force Japan's hand on Fujimori's return." Another factor: " Japan last year bought more than $1.4 billion Peruvian goods, making it the Andean nation's fifth most important foreign market."
The New York Times reports that an anti-terrorism letter is being drafted by APEC but does not mention Peru's initiation of it noted yesterday by the People Daily (China).
DIPLOMATIC DISPATCHES MS Presswire reports on UN Minister Counsellor Marco Balarezo's comments at the Preparatory committee meeting on next year's International Conference on Financing for Development which he says "must take an approach based on human rights, and poverty must be at its core." Yesterday, Balarezo was chosen as a vice-chairman for the committee (see below).
The Washington Times cites UN Ambassador Oswaldo de Rivera asking for "informal consultations" in an article on a more transparent and accountable UN Security Council. Yesterday, M2Presswire provided a more extensive summary of de Rivera's words (see below).
OTHER BUSINESS Companies or industries which had news on the wires today include: Antamina, Cementos Lima, Foster Wheeler, Grana y Montero, hotel debt, IMA Exploration, insurance sales, NRG Energy, PetroPeru, port concessions, Skanska, Synapsis, and TIM and AT&T.
2 CONTINENTAL RACES The Inca Road Rally reaches Peru today, entering through Puno. And EFE reports that Popy, a clown from Spain, left Bolivia yesterday on a trans-continental bicycle journey that will take him through nine Latin American countries, including Peru. His trip is being "assisted financially by Clowns Without Borders" and his aim was to "bring joy back to people's lives."
THE BEST PAPAS The Chicago Tribune judges where the best papas rellenas can be had in Chicago. A "fine" version can be had at the 'Rinconcito' chain of Peruvian restaurants, but the "most spectacularly yummy papa rellena" is from 'Taste of Peru' in Rogers Park.
THE BEST BASS The New York Times runs another column by Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. While the recipe ostensibly revolves around Chilean sea bass, the master chef says he "uses a technique I learned from home cooks in Peru." On Sunday, the Japan Times reviewed Chef Nobu's first cookbook (see October 14 below).
OF SPECIAL INTEREST The Washington Post and the New York Times run a piece from the Associated Press declaring that shepherds in California, many from Peru, will get access to electricity, running water and telephones through legislation signed by Governor Grey Davis. .... The Guardian (London) runs an obituary of Richard Slater, former UK Ambassador to Peru during the Odría administration. The Times of London ran an obituary last Wednesday (see Peruvia's Archives). ..... The Miami Herald reports that there are more Hispanics in the USA than in Peru. ... EFE reports that Peru is #44 in FIFA rankings.
TUESDAY October 16, 2001
WHERE IS TOLEDO HEADING? The Financial Times reports that President Alejandro Toledo "has suffered a small but significant slip in his popularity as impatience over the pace of economic improvements has increased pressure on the new government." The story also quotes the director of the polling firm Apoyo saying "there is a belief that the government doesn't have control over the economy or over political events."
FIRST TO QUITO EFE reports on Toledo's arrival in Ecuador today. He is "scheduled to meet with mayors of the Ecuador-Peru border area to hear their concerns and needs and to promote the economic development of the region since peace was established by the 1998 treaty."
SECOND TO SHANGHAI The Japan Times and CNN.com run the same Reuters piece saying that President Toledo wants to discuss Fujimori's status with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Shanghai, October 20-21. While Toledo is scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush while in China, "Peru is still coordinating possible talks between Toledo and Koizumi." The People Daily (China) reports from Shanghai that Peru's senior official at APEC, Elard Escala, says that "APEC will play an essential role in leading the world out of the shadow of economic doldrums. Escala also says that Peru's tourism industry saw "a 70% decrease in the number of tourists within a single week of September 11." The People Daily also reports from Lima that Peru "will propose a declaration to condemn terrorism" at the meetings.
It was at last year's APEC meetings in Brunei that Fujimori decided not to return to Peru.
PERU AT THE UN M2Presswire reports that UN Ambassador Oswaldo de Rivera suggested that that "since Peru was one of the few successful examples of the elimination of terrorism, it was more than capable of aiding the Security Council in the performance of such important tasks, and it was therefore evaluating the possibility of suggesting the appointment of a Peruvian expert as a member of the Council's committee against terrorism." The Washington Post (using the Associated Press) reports that the Shining Path was the only group in Peru mentioned as a terrorist entity by US Ambassador Francis Taylor's presentation at the OAS' Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism. Taylor heads the Office of Counter Terrorism at the US State Department.
M2Presswire also reports that UN Minister Counsellor Marco Balarezo was chosen as one of three vice-chairmen of the Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Mexico in March 2002.
STAYING CURRENT The Financial Times keeps Hernando de Soto in the news with a piece on Manshiyet Nasr, a Cairo slum whose governing body is trying to implement the Peruvian economist's ideas. Yesterday, De Soto wrote a piece in the New York Times and last Monday he was touted as a possible Nobel winner (see Peruvia's Archive).
SPEAKING PROPERLY EarthTimes and EFE report on the " Second International Conference of the Spanish Language," sponsored by Spain's Royal Academy and New York's Cervantes Institute which begins today in Valladolid, Spain (through Friday). EFE reports that Mario Vargas Llosa will be a plenary speaker and quotes the director of the Cervantes Institute, saying he was "confident that in the near future [Spanish] will become a means of global communication." King Juan Carlos will receive the first copy of the 21st edition of the Royal Academy's dictionary at the conference.
OTHER BUSINESS Companies or industries which had news on the wires today include: the bond market, cement, coffee, electricity, Emergia Peru, energy and mining auctions, PetroPeru, Phelps Dodge, rural telephony, textiles, textile exports, and Transportadoras de Gas del Peru.
Of Special Interest The Washington Post runs several soccer/football scores for Peruvian games.
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