Category Archives: Peru

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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Peruvian loggers given 28 years in jail for murder of four Indigenous leaders

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Victims – among them environmental defender Edwin Chota – were tortured before their deaths in Peruvian Amazon in 2014

Five illegal loggers in Peru have been given 28-year jail sentences for the murder of four Indigenous leaders, among them the prominent anti-logging campaigner Edwin Chota, in a rare win for environmental justice.

Nearly eight years after the 2014 quadruple murder, a court in Pucallpa in the Peruvian Amazon found the loggers, Eurico Mapes Gómez and the brothers Segundo and Josimar Atachi Félix, guilty of aggravated homicide against the leaders, and sentenced them on Thursday to 28 years and three months in prison.

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Peru’s ‘racist bias’ drove lethal police response to protests, Amnesty says

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In a damning report, human rights group says state permitted ‘excessive and lethal use of force’ against Indigenous groups

Peru used “excessive and lethal force” driven by “marked racist bias” against a largely indigenous and campesino population, Amnesty International has concluded, following an investigation into more than two months of anti-government protests which have claimed at least 60 lives.

An Amnesty International fact-finding mission investigated 46 possible cases of human rights violations and documented 12 cases of deaths from the use of firearms – all the victims appeared to have been shot in the chest, torso or head – following visits to the capital Lima and the southern cities of Chincheros, Ayacucho and Andahuaylas.

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Peru calls on citizens to report ‘acts of terrorism’ on social media

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Rights groups say the move is a threat to freedom of expression in a country currently facing deadly anti-government protests

Peru has called on citizens to report social media users suspected of supporting or inciting “acts of terrorism”, as the country reels from two months of violent anti-government protests which have claimed at least 59 lives.

In a move widely condemned by human rights organisations, the country’s interior ministry said on Monday that the criminal definition of “apology for terrorism” was being modified to include the use of social media, after the first jail sentences for the alleged crime last month.

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Peru’s president renews call for elections this year to bring end to protests

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Dina Boluarte threatens constitutional reform if lawmakers fail to bring forward national vote

Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has made a renewed appeal for congress to hold early elections as a way to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that otherwise she would seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.

The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily protests since 7 December, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress and rule by decree.

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Peru’s beleaguered president urges congress to bring 2024 elections forward

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Dina Boluarte calls for vote to be held in December after weeks of anti-government protests since overthrow of former president

Peru’s beleaguered president, Dina Boluarte, has urged Congress to bring forward elections scheduled for April 2024 to the end of this year as anti-government protests and blockades intensify across the country.

Boluarte, who has refused to step down despite furious nationwide protests calling for her to resign, said on Friday that elections should be brought forward to December in an attempt to ease the seven weeks of unrest that has claimed 57 lives – mostly civilians killed in clashes with the security forces.

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More journalists killed in Latin America and Caribbean than Ukraine in 2022

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Committee to Protect Journalist reports region accounted for almost half of the 67 deaths worldwide

More journalists were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean than in any other part of the world last year, including the Ukraine war zone, the press watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

In a report released on Tuesday, the group said that, globally, at least 67 journalists and media workers had been killed in 2022, nearly double the 2021 figure of 45.

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Police violently raid Lima university and shut Machu Picchu amid Peru unrest

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Students say they were beaten and thrown out of dormitories as authorities crack down on protests against president

Scores of police raided a Lima university on Saturday, smashing down the gates with an armoured vehicle, firing teargas and detaining more than 200 people who had come to the Peruvian capital to take part in anti-government protests.

Images showed dozens of people lying face down on the ground at San Marcos University after the surprise police operation. Students said they were pushed, kicked and hit with truncheons as they were forced out of their dormitories.

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Dozens injured and police stations attacked as protests continue in Peru

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Police in Lima use teargas on demonstrators, with authorities claiming massive fire at historic building was ‘duly planned’

Dozens of Peruvians were injured when tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country.

In the capital, Lima, police officers used teargas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, TV footage showed.

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‘We feel betrayed’: Peruvians on anti-government protests

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Peruvians speak up about inequality as President Dina Boluarte declares state of emergency in Lima

Daniel, 32, an indigenous mine worker from the city of Abancay in the southern-central Apurimac province, did not participate in the mass protests that swept over Peru in 2020, after president Martín Vizcarra was ousted.

“But I did take part this time, in my town, to support my people, Indigenous people, who have been treated like garbage for centuries by the ‘elites’.”

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Peru protesters fight running battles with police after thousands march in Lima

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President Dina Boluarte vows to punish protesters as crowds continue to call for her resignation

A march billed as the “takeover of Lima” escalated into running battles between protesters and riot police amid stone-throwing and swirls of teargas on Thursday evening in Peru’s capital.

Thousands of protesters from across the country poured into Lima earlier in the week to take part in a massive march demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte after nearly six weeks of turmoil that has killed more than 50 people, including one police officer and eight people who died as a result of strikes and blockades.

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Peru: growing outrage over protest deaths as president urged to resign

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Thousands of protesters descend on Lima to call for resignation of Dina Boluarte following weeks of turmoil that has left dozens dead

Peru’s capital city is bracing for further unrest as thousands of protesters from across the country pour into Lima to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, after nearly six weeks of turmoil that has claimed close to 50 lives.

Two more people were killed late on Wednesday and another seriously injured in Macusani, a city in the southern region of Puno. After the deaths, protesters torched a police station, forcing officers to flee in a helicopter. In Lima, police fired teargas after clashes broke out with protesters.

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