A South African mining company and its Peruvian joint-venture partner have announced the discovery of a major gold deposit in the volcanically active Moquega region. The new deposit is estimated to contain 5.6 million ounces of gold, which is slightly more than what Peru exported last year.

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=356857&CategoryId=14095

In the Andean Huancayo Province, sports promoters invited mothers to spar with one another for three rounds while wearing traditional pollera skirts. Ten women participated with about two hundred spectators looking on.

Source: The Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geOHEKKI7YgbDad4DNtnJrfXrCeAD9FK6AUG0

According to data released by the Ministry of Energy and Mines yesterday, Peru's electricity production rose 8.5 percent between April 2009 and last month. Hydroelectric stations are the main source with natural gas a distant second. About 64% of Peru's electricity comes from hydroelecric stations.

The country turned out 2,913 gigawatt-hours last month, which is about what 3.5 million average American households use.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100512-719662.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesAmericas

Sterilization? Wow; they're not kidding around.

He-heh - kind of like the U.S. backwards.

6.4 is pretty substantial, but still less than 1/1000th of what the big one this past winter was. The story is a very recent development, so nobody knows what the damage is yet.

"A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution."

This Wednesday, President Alan Garcia of Peru accused Hugo Chavez of restricting imports from Peru and violating an international agreement. Venezuela was a member of the Andean Community (a trade union with a common passport) until 2006. According to Peru's foreign minister, any country that withdraws from the Andean community is required to keep its markets open and duty-free for five years - in Venezuela's case, until next year.

At present, the Andean Community is made up of Columbia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. The Lima Chamber of Commerce is concerned about Chavez's new import restrictions because of the more than six hundred businesses that make shoes, clothing or textiles for Venezuelan markets.

While he was at it, Garcia disparaged Chavez's overall management of the Venezuelan economy. "The economic model that's being applied there isn't the most advisable...[Venezuela] has inflation problems, a lack of investment, of job creation, a lack of technology. There are blackouts and so industry is also starting to suffer."

Source: Bloomberg
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9FCDMT00.htm

La Comisión de Promoción del Perú is reaching out to foreign travellers in order to promote tourism; particlarly in the tropical northern part of the country. Attractions promoted include beaches, surfing, and archaeological sites which pre-date the Incan civilization.

General Luis Muguruza, the police chief who commanded the bloodiest police operation of Alan Garcia's presidency, has been named to a government human rights commission. The appointment comes just as he is facing charges for homicide.

Last June General Muguruza led the police response to a roadblock by some Indians who had been protesting the Garcia administration's development policy in the Amazon. Ten civilians and twenty-three officers were killed. Seventeen police officers, including Muguruza, are being charged with the deaths of four civilians.

As a member of the Interior Ministry's human rights commission, General Maguruza will essentially be able to lead his own defense in court.

Source: The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/25/world/AP-LT-Peru-Police-Commander.html

Peru's interior minister announced on Friday the seizure of four metric tons (about 4.5 short tons) of cocaine this Thursday in the port city of Callao. The cocaine had been hidden in a shipping container full of powdered sulfur destined for an undisclosed port in Europe.

The minister hinted that it was a planned operation but did not reveal how the shipment had been discovered. He also announced that eight smugglers had been arrested moving drugs out of the interior inside the fuel tanks of their trucks.

Peru is second only to Columbia as a producer of cocaine and of the coca plant from which it is derived. Large shipments like these are not unprecedented - last September police interdicted four and a half tonnes of cocaine on its way to Spain.

Sources:

The Hindu
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article409040.ece

Andinia (Peru state media)
http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=s0nPn6E9J4c=

UPDATE: Apparently, 4,000 kg of cocaine hydrochloride is worth more than $320 million in the U.S. market. The articles were unclear as to whether it was four tonnes of pure cocaine or four tonnes TOTAL of cocaine and sulfur. Either way this was a huge deal.

I'm skeptical that people can participate as full citizens if they don't understand the language that federal laws and documents are written in; not to mention our Constitution. There's a strong case to be made that English as an official language would be neccessary and proper for the operation of the federal government.

Congressman King is approaching the issue from a nationalist perspective, though. There's nothing wrong with bilingualism in private homes or communites or even in media as long as English is used for official purposes. Besides, Puerto Rico as a state would reserve the right to have Spanish as a state language, and there's nothing the feds can do about it.

Legalize it - problem solved.

A zinc/lead mine that was first excavated 1956 is slowly devouring the historic town of Cerro de Pasco in the Peruvian Andes. In the meantime, the area's 70,000 or so residents are suffering in large numbers from lead poisoning.

Because the mine employs around 4,000 people, officials are reluctant to close it and recently ceded the town's historic center (which includes a 260-year-old church) to Volcán Compañía Minera, the company that runs it. In exchange, the company is developing the infrastructure in and around Cerro de Pasco, building roads, water services and sewage systems. Most of the town's residents live in homes constructed by the previous owner of the mine.

City mayor Tito Valle has won concessions from Volcán but is against closing the mine. "Like it or not, we depend on this main industry to maintain any semblance of development," he says.

Large numbers of mine workers still move to Cerro de Pasco because they make a better living than peasant farmers in the surrounding province. However, the higher pay also comes with increased health risks. Herders have reported losing sheep because of contaminated water. Nine out of ten children have noticeably high levels of lead or other metals in their blood, which can lead to behavioral problems and brain damage.

Source: The Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNQVU0NbVzLa5Z4xtxx4IR9eRsJQD9F5IP1O5

Eight people were killed yesterday afternoon and ten injured when the truck they were riding in went off the road at high speed. The truck landed upside-down in the Cochoc River between Calca and Suntucocha in the Cuzco Province.

Peru's roads are notorious both for their delapidation and for an alarming number of accidents. It is possible to get a commercial license just by paying a fee, and many drivers are simply not qualified to operate larger vehicles like buses and trucks.

The truck was carrying twenty-eight people, all of whom were hurt. Two of the injured remain in critial condition.

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=355892&CategoryId=14095

The American Museum of Natural History has described a new species of aquatic leech after being sent an example from Peru. The preserved specimen was pulled from a young girl's nose about three years ago after she went swimming in a river.

The new species was given a very scary name: Tyrannobdella rex. It is thought to be related to a Mexican variety of leech that feeds off of livestock.

Source: NYDaily
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/2010/04/19/2010-04-19_perus_tyrant_leech_king_can_enter_human_noses_and_latch_onto_mucous_membranes_wi.html

UPDATE: Further reading at http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/15/trex-leech-enormous-teeth/