A consortium led by China Three Gorges Corp has agreed to buy a giant hydro-electric plant under construction in Peru from scandal-mired Brazilian company Odebrecht. The Chaglla complex, slated to be Peru's third largest dam, is the latest addition to a growing string of South American hydro facilities to come under control of Chinese companies.
Protesters blocked the train line to the Inca archaeological site of Machu Picchu, stranding thousands of tourists during a 48-hour paro (civil strike) by residents of Peru's Cuzco region. British-owned PeruRail company said service was being suspended because of the blockades. At issue is a planned new airport for the Cuzco area, that was suspended in March due to controversies surrounding the construction contract.
Peru's government has mobilized thousands of National Police agents to the buffer zone of Tambopata National Reserve in the Madre de Dios region to evict illegal gold-miners operating in the area.
Thousands marched in Lima to demand that Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski not pardon ex-strongman Alberto Fujimori, now serving a 25-year term for human rights violations.
An aggressive new coca-eradication campaign in Peru was met with a deadly attack on security forces by remnant Sendero Luminoso guerillas in the targeted production zone.
Police seized large areas of "trafficked" lands in the Lomas de Primavera green belt overlooking Lima, but accounts were vague on the fate of the peasant families settled there.
Some 70,000 are displaced and at least 70 dead as Peru's heaviest rains in two decades—linked to an "abnormal" El Niño—unleashed flash-floods and landslides across the country.
A trial opened in Peru's Cajamarca region against 16 community leaders facing prison terms for their participation in a protest against the Conga mining project.
An arbitration body ruled for Peru in a case brought by a US mineral interest under terms of the Free Trade Agreement, but is denying Lima recovery of legal costs.
The Inter-Oceanic Highway, long a focus of protest in Peru's Amazon, is at issue in the corruption scandal implicating ex-president Alejandro Toledo.
Gen. John Kelly, Trump's choice for Homeland Security secretary, is ex-chief of the Pentagon's Southern Command who clashed with Obama over his hardline views.
Peru's new defense minister, Jorge Nieto Montesinos, announced that he will focus on wiping out remnant Shining Path guerillas operating in the country's main coca-producing region.
