The Fifteenth-Century Incan fortress at Machu Picchu is expected to open early this April after flash flooding and mudslides disabled the railroad in late January and cut off access to any tourists except backpackers. It sits at an elevation of 7,874 feet about fifty miles from the city of Cuzco, only twenty miles of which is passable by car or jeep.

The Machu Picchu ruins were fortunately undamaged by the flooding, which was caused by the heaviest rain in fifteen years. About four thousand people including two thousand refugees were evacuated after being stranded for five days. The flooding dealt a serious blow to Peru's tourism industry, as Machu Picchu typically receives about one million visitors per year. The losses so far are estimated at US$160 million.

Tellingly, stock in the company that operates the Machu Picchu railway rose 2.4% after the Peruvian trade minister set a definitive date at April 1. In the meantime, Cuzco merchants will be getting a bailout of sorts: The government is cutting air fares and hotel rates by half to stimulate tourism in that city while the railroad is repaired, with Peruvian citizens receiving said rate cuts before foreign travellers.

Sources:

Reuters: "Peru says Machu Picchu site to reopen in April" - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F5Y920100217

Business Week: "Peru seeks tourists for Cuzco Machu Picchu gateway [sic]" - http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9DUN1KG0.htm

Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori gave away his daughter Saturday in a small wedding ceremony at the chapel of the Peruvian police's Special Operations Directorate headquaters.

The ex-president and his daughter Sachi entered the police compound together in a white limosine where about fifty guests and the groom, a German citizen named Mark König, were already waiting.

Alberto Fujimori is serving a thirty-two-year sentence for orchestrating dozens of assassinations and kidnappings as extralegal measures in a 1990s counter-insurgency campaign, and for accepting bribes while President. His other daughter, Keiko Fujimori, is a presidential candidate in her own right and a member of congress.

In addition to the fifty invited guests, about a hundred people climbed a nearby hill to get a look inside the prison. Fujimori is still quite popular in Peru for his handling of the economy while President. He liberalized trade, improved education, modernized telecommunications, trimmed down the bureaucracy and lifted six million people out of poverty.

Five people were killed and twenty-nine hurt today in a standoff between 1,200 police and about 3,800 miners who had blockaded a busy section of the Pan-American Highway in protest of new regulations on the industry. Police had been sent by President Alan Garcia to clear the roadblock. Shots were fired and one of those killed was a bystander.

Environmental groups have accused Peru's more than 300,000 "wildcat miners" - who extract gold from public lands completely free of government regulation - of dumping mercury into the mountain streams that feed the Amazon River. The miners had been protesting new taxes and regulations which they insist would have destroyed their livelihoods and sunken their families into poverty. Wildcat miners account for 10-20% of Peru's annual gold output.

President Garcia vehemently defended his resource management policies: "We're not against mining, but this is a savage, informal kind of mining that pays no taxes and establishes its own ways of working like slavery, prostitution, white slavery and even the enslaving of children."

President Garcia's Administration and the left-wing opposition each blamed the other for the unrest, though Nationalist Party leader Ollanta Humala dismissed accusations that his party had organized the protests as campaign smears. Garcia is limited by law to a single term and has said he will do everything he can to make sure a centrist candidate wins the 2011 presidential election.

Miners blamed police for the violence. A number of protestors had been carrying rocks and clubs but reports disagreed as to whether any of them had had guns.

Sources:

Reuters: "Tense standoff in Peru as protest turns deadly" - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6342XJ20100405?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Latin American Herald Tribune: "Five Killed in Protests by Wildcat Miners in Peru " - http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=354775&CategoryId=14095

China's deputy trade minister has announced that Chinese companies have invested $1.4 billion in Peru so far - more than any other country in Latin America.

"Peru has become the principal destination of Chinese investment in Latin America, while China has become this country's second largest trade partner," the minister said yesterday. More than a billion of it has been invested in mining - particularly the profitable and fast-growing copper industry.

Chinese companies have already made plans to invest another four and a half billion dollars in Peru in the future. The high expectations for foreign investment are thanks to a free trade agreement between the two countries that went into effect last month and is anticipated to increase trade by $800 million. Peru has made a similar agreement with its principal trading partner, the United States.

Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/China-investment-in-Peru-tops-in-Latin-America-Official-/articleshow/5842201.cms

The International Monetary Fund has projected that Peru's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow more than twelve percent over the next two years - more than any other country in Latin America or the West Indies. In contrast, the aggregate GDP of the Latin America/Caribbean region is expected to gain a mere four percent in GDP numbers over the same two years. (An economy is considered healthy if it grows four percent or more annually.)

Gross domestic product is the total amount of wealth within a country's borders; whether owned by citizens of that country or by foreign investors. Per capita GDP is commonly used as an economic indicator for prosperity and development.

Source: Isabel Guerra, "Living in Peru"
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-12009-latin-america-imf-peru-will-lead-economic-growth-latin-america-caribbean-region

Those silly socialists. :P

Up to twelve Peruvian mining companies are under investigation for buying gold from wildcat miners to avoid paying taxes. At least four of the companies - Titan, Dynacor, Laytaruma, and Colibri - will likely end up in court in the near future and may be fined, according to the Peruvian tax agency Sunat.

Wildcat miners are unable to export their goods, so they typically sell to large companies that do business abroad. Two of the four companies freely admit to buying gold from wildcat miners but insist that it is done legally and without tax evasion.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1921188320100419?type=marketsNews

Fifteen people were killed this morning and at least twenty injured when a bus fell 100 feet into Lake Titicaca after going off the road at the edge of a ravine. The bus had been driving along one of Peru's perilous mountain highways in the Puno province. About fifty people were aboard and rescuers have been unable to reach the submerged vehicle - the final toll may have been higher than reported.

Sources:

1. "Living in Peru"
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-11937-peru-peru-bus-falls-into-titicaca-lake-14-fatalities-up-now

2. Sydney Morning Herald
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/bus-plunges-into-ravine-in-peru-15-dead-20100413-s4hr.html

3. Latin American Herald Tribune
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=355233&CategoryId=14095