Category Archives: Peru

Florida professor may have solved mystery of Peru’s Band of Holes

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Charles Stanish surmised indentations were rudimentary market place and later adapted as accounting and storage system

A Florida archaeologist’s decades-long persistence has helped solve one of Peru’s most puzzling geographical conundrums: the origin and purpose of the so-called Band of Holes in the country’s mountainous Pisco Valley.

Charles Stanish, professor of archaeology at the University of South Florida, and an expert on Andean culture, spent years studying the more than 5,200 curious hillside shallow pits known to local residents as Monte Sierpe - serpent mountain.

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Peru severs diplomatic relations with Mexico after former prime minister claims asylum

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Peru's government has severed diplomatic relations with Mexico over the asylum claim of former Peruvian prime minister Betssy Chávez

Peru’s government has announced the country is severing diplomatic relations with Mexico over the asylum claim of the former Peruvian prime minister Betssy Chávez, who is under investigation for rebellion.

The Peruvian foreign minister, Hugo de Zela, told reporters Mexico’s decision to grant Chávez asylum at its embassy in Peru’s capital, Lima, constituted an “unfriendly act” that added to the existing tensions between the two countries. The office of Peru’s president, José Jerí, issued a statement accusing Mexico’s government of repeated interference in his country’s internal affairs.

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Peru’s interim president declares state of emergency after weeks of anti-government protests

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Declaration means government can send army to patrol streets, restrict freedom of assembly and curtail other rights

Peru’s interim president, Jose Jeri, announced a state of emergency in Lima and the neighbouring port of Callao on Tuesday after weeks of anti-government protests over corruption and organised crime.

“The state of emergency approved by the council of ministers will take effect at midnight on Wednesday and will last for 30 days in metropolitan Lima and Callao,” Jeri said in an address to the nation on state television.

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Peru to declare state of emergency after protests against new president leave one dead and dozens injured

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Demonstrators clashed with police outside congress building amid public anger at crime crisis days after José Jerí assumed power

Peru is set to declare a state of emergency after at least one person was killed and dozens of police officers were injured in widespread protests against President José Jerí who assumed power just days ago.

Prime minister Ernesto Alvarez said late on Thursday that the government would declare the state of emergency in Lima within hours and is preparing a package of measures to tackle rising insecurity.

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Peru lawmakers vote to oust president Dina Boluarte over crime crisis

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Congress leader José Jerí sworn in as interim president as majority of lawmakers initiate impeachment against Boluarte

Lawmakers in Peru have voted to remove the president, Dina Boluarte, whose term has been marked by protests and accusations of failing to stem crime.

Boluarte refused to appear before Congress on Friday for an overnight hearing after a majority of lawmakers, including some once loyal to her, voted to initiate impeachment proceedings.

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Illegal gold mining clears 140,000 hectares of Peruvian Amazon

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Armed criminal groups tear down precious rainforest to capitalise on record gold prices, report finds

An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, according to a report.

About 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly across the country, Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) and its Peruvian partner organisation, Conservación Amazónica, found.

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Rocks on train tracks strand 900 Machu Picchu tourists amid protest

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About 1,400 visitors were evacuated but hundreds were left stuck because of action linked to bus contract dispute, say Peru authorities

At least 900 tourists were stranded near the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu on Tuesday, Peru’s tourism minister said, after a passenger train service was suspended due to a protest.

PeruRail said service was suspended on Monday because the route in Peru’s mountainous Cusco region had been blocked by “rocks of various sizes” as residents clashed with authorities and bus companies. PeruRail’s local unit also said “third parties” had excavated part of its rail route, which affected the track’s stability and slowed down the evacuation of tourists.

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Indonesia embassy official’s shooting in Lima probably a ‘contract killing’, says Peru government

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Interior minister says ‘they were waiting for’ official who was shot at point-blank range outside his home in killing that has shocked Peru

Peru’s government has said the fatal shooting of an Indonesian embassy official in Lima on Monday night was likely a “contract killing”.

Zetro Leonardo Purba, 40, an official at the Indonesian embassy in Peru, was shot dead outside his block of flats in Lima’s Lince neighbourhood while riding a bicycle home from work on Monday evening.

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Archaeologists in Peru discover 3D mural that could date back 4,000 years

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The unprecedented find has shifted archaeological understanding about the first civilisations in the Americas

Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a multicoloured three-dimensional mural that could date back 4,000 years, in an unprecedented find that has shifted archaeological understanding about the first civilisations in the Americas.

The centrepiece of the three-by-six metre mural is a stylistic depiction of a large bird of prey with outstretched wings, its head adorned with three-dimensional diamond motifs that visually align the south and north faces of the mural. It is covered with high-relief friezes and features designs painted in blue, yellow, red and black.

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Uncontacted Peruvian tribe on deadly collision course with loggers, group says

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Survival International says Mashco Piro seen in nearby Amazon village in alarming sign group is under stress

Members of an Indigenous tribe who live deep in Peru’s Amazon rainforest and avoid contact with outsiders have been reported entering a neighboring village in what activists consider an alarming sign that the group is under stress from development.

The sightings of members of Mashco Piro tribe come as a logging company is building a bridge that could give outsiders easier access to the tribe’s territory, a move that could raise the risk of disease and conflict, according to Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous rights.

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Peru enacts amnesty for military and police accused of human rights abuses

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Families of victims and advocacy groups condemn law that covers internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000

Human rights groups and families of victims of Peru’s two-decade internal armed conflict have expressed outrage after the country’s government granted a blanket amnesty for all military and police officers accused of human rights crimes from 1980 to 2000.

The Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, signed the amnesty – which was approved by the country’s congress last month – into law on Wednesday, to the applause of military top brass and ministers at Lima’s government palace.

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Peru drops plan to shrink protected area around Nazca Lines archaeological site

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Critics had claimed that plan announced in May exposed complex of desert etchings to impact of informal mining

Peru’s government has abandoned a plan that reduced the size of a protected area around the country’s ancient Nazca Lines, after criticism the change made them vulnerable to the impact of informal mining operations.

Peru’s culture ministry said on Sunday that it was reinstating with immediate effect the protected area covering 5,600 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), that in late May had been cut back to 3,200 sq km. The government said at the time the decision was based on studies that had more precisely demarcated areas with “real patrimonial value”.

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Outrage over Peru’s decision to nearly halve protected area near Nazca Lines

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Shock decision has raised fears ancient site with almost 2,000-year-old geoglyphs will be exploited by illegal miners

Archeologists and environmentalists have expressed their outrage at a shock decision by Peru’s culture ministry to cut by nearly half the protected archaeological park around the iconic Nazca Lines, excluding an area nearly the size of urban Lima, the country’s capital city.

The Unesco world heritage attracts thousands of tourists to see the massive hummingbird, monkey and whale figures in the desert in Peru’s second-biggest tourist attraction after Machu Picchu. Last year, archaeologists using AI discovered hundreds of new geoglyphs dating back more than 2,000 years, predating the famous lines in the sand.

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Case of mother who died during forced sterilisation in Peru to be heard in court

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Celia Ramos was one of thousands of women subjected to government’s brutal policy in the 1990s. A ruling by the inter-American court of human rights could open way for reparations

The case of a forced sterilisation carried out in Peru in the 1990s will be heard by an international court on Thursday, 28 years after the procedure – one of many thousands – resulted in a woman’s death.

Celia Ramos was 34 when she died in 1997, 19 days after surgery for a tubal ligation caused respiratory failure. The mother of three was “harassed” into accepting the procedure, which was part of a nationwide family planning programme.

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Five fishermen lost at sea for 55 days rescued by Ecuadorian tuna boat

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Three Peruvians and two Colombians missing since setting sail from Peru in March arrive in Galápagos Islands

Five fishers who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrived on Saturday at a port in the Galápagos after being rescued by a tuna boat, the Ecuadorian navy said on X.

The three Peruvians and two Colombians had been missing since mid-March and were found on 7 May by an Ecuadorian boat called Aldo.

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Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

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Pope faced questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career after a survivors group filed a complaint

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

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‘The pope is Peruvian’: elation in country where pontiff served as bishop

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Leo XIV celebrated as second Latin American pope having spent many years in Peru’s church

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been celebrated across Latin America, where many hailed him as the second pontiff from the region, after his Argentinian predecessor, Francis.

The news prompted particular elation in Peru, where he lived and worked for more than 20 years and was granted citizenship in 2015. In the capital, Lima, the bells of the cathedral rang in celebration.

In his first appearance from the Vatican balcony, Leo XIV briefly switched from Italian to Spanish to address the faithful “from my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru”, where he served as bishop for more than a decade.

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Gold mining suspended in Peru’s north after 13 miners killed

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Government response comes amid outrage over the murder of the men who had been held captive for more than a week

Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has suspended gold mining and announced a 12-hour curfew in Pataz, in the northern region, after criminals kidnapped and killed 13 gold mine workers.

A Peruvian gold mining company La Poderosa said on Sunday that the bodies of 13 contract workers from a local firm had been found by police inside one of the mine’s tunnels.

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Indigenous river campaigner from Peru wins prestigious Goldman prize

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Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari led a successful legal battle to protect the Marañon River in the Peruvian Amazon

An Indigenous campaigner and women’s leader from the Peruvian Amazon has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful legal campaign that led to the river where her people, the Kukama, live being granted legal personhood.

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 57, from the village of Shapajila on the Marañon River, led the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (HKK) women’s association, supported by lawyers from Peru’s Legal Defence Institute, in a campaign to protect the river. After three years, judges in Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazon region, ruled in March 2024 that the Marañon had the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination, respecting an Indigenous worldview that regards a river as a living entity.

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Grassroots activists who took on corruption and corporate power share 2025 Goldman prize

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Seven winners of environmental prize include Amazonian river campaigner and Tunisian who fought against organised waste trafficking

Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize.

The community campaigns led by the seven 2025 Goldman prize winners underscore the courage and tenacity of local activists willing to confront the toxic mix of corporate power, regulatory failures and political corruption that is fuelling biodiversity collapse, water shortages, deadly air pollution and the climate emergency.

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