Category Archives: Peru

Mario Vargas Llosa says latest novel will be his last

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Nobel prize-winning Peruvian author still plans to write an essay on Sartre that ‘will be the last thing I write’

Peru’s best-known living writer, the Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, has announced that his seven-decade literary career is coming to an end and that his latest novel will be his last.

In a postscript to the new book, Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence), the 87-year-old novelist writes: “I think I’ve finished this book. I’d now like to write an essay on [Jean-Paul] Sartre, who was my teacher as a young man. It will be the last thing I write.”

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Dozens of Malaysians rescued in Peru after being trafficked to commit online fraud

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Malaysian foreign ministry says 43 of its citizens were freed in Lima after being forced to take part in ‘Macau scam’

More than 40 people from Malaysia have been rescued by police in Peru after they fell victim to a human trafficking syndicate operating a telecommunication fraud.

The Malaysians were forced to participate in the so-called “Macau scam”, making calls to companies in Malaysia and Taiwan to demand money while posing as banks, police or justice officials.

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Paddington in Peru films in Colombia – sparking row over legislation in Peru

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Peruvian film-makers outraged over legislation to revitalise industry after film chooses Colombia as shooting location

New legislation to revitalise Peru’s film industry has been proposed after the makers of the British comedy Paddington in Peru chose Colombia as the filming location for the section of the movie in which the bear finally returns to his home country.

The initiative, put forward by rightwing lawmaker Adriana Tudela, cited the “lack of incentives and the high number of national and local bureaucratic barriers to filming in Peru” as the principal obstacle to the mislocation of the third Paddington movie due out in 2024.

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Peruvian man arrested for making more than 150 bomb threats to US schools

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Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to ‘sextort’ nude photos from schoolchildren

A Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.

Eddie Manuel Núñez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department.

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Peru announces air security pact with US in bid to stop drug planes

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Deal revives agreement from 20 years ago and will allow intelligence and training support for Peru’s air force

Peru announced an air security agreement with the US on Saturday in what the government described as a push to stop planes belonging to drug gangs from entering the South American country’s airspace.

The deal revives a bilateral security cooperation pact with the US from 20 years ago, according to a government statement, and will permit new intelligence and training support to flow to Peru’s air force.

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Newly discovered whale species could have been heaviest animal ever

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Fossils found in Peru from extinct species show it may have had body mass of 85-340 tonnes – heavier than blue whales

The fossilised bones of an ancient creature that patrolled coastal waters 40m years ago belong to a newly discovered species that is a contender for the heaviest animal ever to have existed on Earth.

Fossil hunters discovered remnants of the enormous and long-extinct whale in a rock formation in the Ica desert of southern Peru. Fully grown adults might have weighed hundreds of tonnes, researchers believe.

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Avian flu may have killed millions of birds globally as outbreak ravages South America

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Virus has spread around the world, with 200,000 wild birds dead in Peru alone and concerns Australia could be next

Millions of wild birds may have died from bird flu globally in the latest outbreak, researchers have said, as the viral disease ravages South America, with 200,000 deaths recorded in Peru alone.

The highly infectious variant of H5N1, which gained momentum in the winter of 2021, caused Europe’s worst bird flu outbreak before spreading globally. The disease reached South America in November 2022, and has now been reported on every continent except Oceania and Antarctica.

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Amazon facing ‘urgent’ drug crisis after gutting of protections, says narcotics chief

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Brazilian government warning comes as UN report says that flourishing organized crime groups are driving a boom in environmental devastation

The Brazilian government’s drug policy chief has admitted that the rapid advance of drug factions into the Amazon rainforest has produced a “a very difficult situation” in the region, as a UN report warned that flourishing organized crime groups were driving a boom in environmental devastation.

Marta Machado, the national secretary for drug affairs, said the previous administration’s intentional dismantling of Brazil’s environmental and Indigenous protection agencies had created a dangerous vacuum in the Amazon which had been occupied by powerful crime syndicates from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

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Lima’s Central restaurant named world’s best in boost for Peruvian cuisine

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Peruvian eateries have been a fixture in top 50 list for close to a decade and now one has claimed the crown

While Peru’s archeology heritage began in the 20th century to attract millions of tourists to locations such as Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, the country’s cuisine remained one of South America’s best-kept secrets.

But in the last two decades, Peru’s food – a product of its rich range of crops, ecosystems and a particular history – has become a global brand, with restaurants opening in cities from San Francisco to Sydney.

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Peru violated rights of 13-year-old girl repeatedly raped by father, UN rules

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Authorities denied pregnant Indigenous girl her legal right to an abortion and ‘re-victimised’ her, UN child rights committee says

Peru violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her father by denying her an abortion after she became pregnant, the UN has ruled.

The United Nations child rights committee found this week that the Peruvian authorities had violated the rights to health and life of the girl, known by the pseudonym Camila, by failing to provide her with information and access to legal and safe abortion.

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Hundreds of families mourn in Peru as children fall victim to dengue outbreak

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Death toll mounts in northern Piura region after torrential rain and floods lead to worst ever epidemic

In a stream of white, mourners walked behind an ivory-coloured, shoulder-borne coffin as neighbours, heads bowed and hands clasped, peered out of doorways on the narrow street in Castilla, a middle-class suburb in Piura, northern Peru.

At the gates of the San José de Tarbes school, dozens of girls wearing grey skirts and white shirts with red ties awaited the cortege, holding white balloons and roses. It was a farewell for their schoolmate Priscila Quispe, seven, who died of dengue in the Santa Rosa public hospital last week.

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Peru extradites Dutch murderer to US over Natalee Holloway disappearance

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Joran van der Sloot, already serving 28-year sentence, faces fraud and extortion charges linked to Alabama teen missing since 2005

Peruvian police have handed over a convicted Dutch murderer to US FBI agents for transfer to the United States, where he faces extortion and fraud charges related to the killing of the Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway two decades ago.

Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national from the Caribbean island of Aruba, is set to face charges in the United States related to the mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of Holloway, an 18-year-old from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, who vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.

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Peruvian police seize 58kg of cocaine bearing pictures of Nazi flag

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Drugs found in shipment said to be destined for Belgium also had the name Hitler printed on them

Peruvian anti-drug police have seized 58 one-kilo packages of cocaine destined for Belgium bearing a picture of a Nazi flag on the outside and the name Hitler printed in low relief.

The discovery occurred in the port of Paita, on Peru’s northern Pacific coast close to its border with Ecuador.

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‘There’s no water’: migrants stranded in Chilean desert as Peru closes border

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Hundreds, mostly Venezuelans, hope to cross into Peru to flee harsh immigration protocols and growing xenophobia in Chile

The wind sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean buffets makeshift tents made of blankets and scraps of fabric, as sheltering migrants peer out, squinting against the whipped-up sand and fierce sun overhead.

This desolate stretch of the Atacama desert has been home for days – and in some cases weeks – to hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, fleeing harsher immigration protocols and growing xenophobia in Chile and hoping to cross its northern border into Peru.

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Peru: former president Alejandro Toledo arrives to face corruption charges

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Leader from 2001 to 2006 extradited from US after judge dismisses appeal

The former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo arrived in Lima on Sunday after his extradition from the United States, the latest in a string of ex-leaders to face corruption charges in the country.

Images showed Toledo, 77, wearing a green jacket and red jumper, being escorted by Peruvian police and US Marshals down the stairway from a commercial flight at Lima’s international airport.

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Peru’s former presidential candidate sentenced for journalist’s murder

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Daniel Urresti sent to jail for 12 years for his role in the 1988 killing of Hugo Bustíos at the height of the country’s civil conflict

A former Peruvian presidential candidate, Daniel Urresti, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for his role in the murder of a journalist in 1988 at the height of the country’s brutal civil conflict.

A court ruled on Thursday that Urresti, then a military intelligence army officer, took part in the ambush and murder of Hugo Bustíos, who was investigating human rights abuses.

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Mayor closes museum of memories in battle over story of Peru’s violent past

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Far-right mayor claimed Lima institution peddled false narrative of 1980-2000 conflict in which guerrillas and army killed 70,000

It was supposed to be a museum of memories: a place of dialogue and reconciliation where Peruvians could commemorate the victims of a brutal internecine conflict which killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s.

Since its controversial inception in 2015, the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion has received about 60,000 visitors a year.

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Indigenous Peruvians condemn US ambassador’s visit to palm oil company

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Outrage as Indigenous communities claim company is operating on illegally deforested land and lacks environmental permits

The US ambassador to Peru has sparked outrage among Indigenous groups and environmental NGOs by visiting a controversial palm oil company and praising it for abstaining from deforestation and as a leader of sustainable agricultural practices.

In a tweet last week, Lisa Kenna commended the company, Ocho Sur, as an example of US-Peruvian ties and as the leading employer in the Peruvian Amazon region of Ucayali. Her expression of support came after she made the solo visit last week while on a trip with her British, German and Norwegian counterparts to the Peruvian Amazon city of Pucallpa.

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Peru: Six dead as powerful cyclone causes major flooding

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Government declares state of emergency after major damage and disruptions in northern regions

At least six people have died in Peru as a powerful cyclone unleashed torrential rains, battering hundreds of homes and causing major disruptions in northern areas.

The government has declared a state of emergency as it seeks to bring relief to regions including Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes hit by the cyclone known as Yaku.

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YouTuber recreates Rosalía show after singer’s tour skips Peru – and sells out

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Ioanis Patsias plays pop star himself, replicating performance down to costume changes and dance numbers for 3,500 Lima fans

The Spanish pop superstar Rosalía disappointed thousands of fans in Peru when the country was left off the 15-country list on her Motomami tour last year.

But one Peruvian, Ioanis Patsias decided to make sure his fellow fans did not miss out on her pop spectacle and put on a tribute show, playing the avant-garde pop queen himself.

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