NEWS

  • Ombudsman reports on social conflict

    25 January 2015

    In its most recent monthly social conflict report, the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) registered a total of 210 social conflicts for the month of December 2014. This was a reduction from 212 cases in November, and the 217 cases in October which represented the peak for active conflicts for 2014.

  • Castaneda takes office as new Lima mayor

    25 January 2015

    Having been re-elected to serve a further four years, after his previous eight as Lima’s mayor, Luis Castañeda Lossio took office on the first day of the New Year. His first three weeks in office have already stirred controversy and he appears to be seeking to reverse many of the reform policies implemented by his predecessor, Susana Villarán.

  • Crystal balls: Central Bank predictions for 2015

    25 January 2015

    Julio Velarde, the president of the central bank (BCRP), predicts that the Peruvian economy will grow this year by 4.8%.

  • Urresti and La Cautiva

    18 January 2015

    La Cautiva is a play about people involved in the counter-insurgency war against Sendero Luminoso. Having run for several months to critical acclaim, it has been denounced by Interior Minister Daniel Urresti as an ‘apology for terrorism’.

  • IACHR demands move on prior consultation

    18 January 2015

    The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has demanded that Peru commits itself fully to the principle of informed prior consultation, both with respect to highland indigenous groups as well as to indigenous tribes living in the lowland jungles of the Amazon basin.

  • Fujimori condemned for embezzlement of public funds

    09 January 2015

    On January 8, former president Alberto Fujimori was convicted to eight years in prison for embezzlement of public funds (peculado doloso) by channelling money to the gutter press with a view to denouncing his adversaries in the 2000 elections.

  • Peru fares poorly in world ranking of environmental performance

    09 January 2015

    Yale University's Environmental Performance Index ranks Peru 110 of 178 countries worldwide. In Latin America, only El Salvador and Paraguay are placed lower.

  • COP-20 results 'underwhelming'

    16 December 2014

    Despite two weeks of solid negotiations and a 25-hour extension at the end, the agreements reached at the COP-20 climate change summit proved decidedly underwhelming.

  • Human rights anniversary

    16 December 2014

    Thirty years have passed since the massacre of Putis on 13 December 1984, a crime that remains unpunished.

  • Anglo American backs out

    10 December 2014

    The giant Anglo American mining corporation, the world’s fourth largest, announced last week that it is withdrawing from the Michiquillay copper project in Cajamarca.

  • Historical Overview

    Over the past century Peru has suffered a series of autocratic governments and a civil war in which nearly 70,000 people died. Many of the country's ongoing political and social problems are a legacy of its somewhat turbulent past. 

  • Society and Conflict

    Peru’s indigenous and peasant communities continue to suffer political marginalisation and discrimination. Insufficient consultation with such groups over political and developmental decisions has fostered feelings of disenfranchisement and led to elevated levels of social conflict.

  • PSG MineWatch

    There are numerous social conflicts related to extractive concessions operated by British firms in Peru. This PSG database shows which firms and which projects have proved the most contentious this month.

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