Timeline Peru
Return to home
Amadeus: http://www.amadeus.net/home/dest/en/SOUTH%20AMERICA/per/32.htm
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pe.html
Emulate: http://www.emulateme.com/peru.htm
Links: http://www2.rcp.net.pe/rcp/misc/webs-peruanos.html
Links: http://www.dmoz.org/Society/History/South_America/Peru/
TravelDocs: http://www.traveldocs.com/pe/index.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/petoc.html
Peru, slightly smaller than Alaska, is the
third-largest nation in South America. It has 3 geographical
regions: Pacific coastal desert, Andes mountain range and Amazon
jungle.
(AP, 6/4/06)
36Mil BC In
2005 scientists in Peru reported the discovery of a giant penguin
that lived about this time on the Peruvian coastline. The bird was
named Icadyptes salasi. It stood over 5-feet and lived during one of
the warmest periods of the world’s history.
(SFC, 6/25/07, p.A10)
12Mil BC A raptorial sperm whale living about this
time grew up to 60 feet with some teeth 14 inches long. Fossils were
discovered in a Peruvian desert and in 2010 scientists named it
Leviathan melvillei.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A3)
10Mil BC In 2009 researchers in Peru said an
unusually intact fossilized skull of a pelagornithid, a giant,
bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago, had been
found in the in the Pisco Formation, a coastal rock bed south of the
capital, Lima, known for yielding fossils of whales, dolphins,
turtles and other marine life dating as far back as 14 million
years.
(AP, 2/28/09)
9600BC A site of human habitation in Peru was
dated to about this time. Later excavations indicated complex stone
tools that appeared to date back to at least 28,000 BCE.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A2)
8000BC The potato was first cultivated some 10,000
years ago by South American Indians. In the 16th century Spanish
explorers brought potatoes back to Europe, where it was first used
primarily as livestock feed. The potato was introduced to North
America in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the poor of Europe
began to use potatoes as a replacement for cereals in their diets.
The failure of the potato crop in Ireland in 1845-46 led to great
famine and pushed tens of thousands of Irish to emigrate to the
United States. In 2008 it was reported that genetic studies by
potato experts indicated that all potatoes originated over 10,000
years ago from a single ancestor, Solanum brevicaule, found on the
Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca.
(HNQ, 5/10/98)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
3800BC The Supe people, a maritime farming
community, was established about this time along the coast of Peru.
(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A13)
3600BC The Supe people, a maritime farming
community along the coast of Peru, disappeared about this time. In
2009 researchers found their disappearance coincided with
earthquakes and landslides followed by massive flooding.
(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A13)
3500BC-3000BC In 2008 a team of German and
Peruvian archaeologists reported the discovery of a ceremonial plaza
near Peru's north-central coast dating to this period.
(AP, 2/27/08)
3022BC In Peru the pyramids of Aspero on the
Pacific coast dated to about this time.
(AM, 7/05, p.20)
3000BC Scientists say that the weather changed
about this time and that the first El Nino Pacific Ocean temperature
flip occurred. Analysis of Peruvian coastal middens of this period
indicated a diet change from tropical mollusks to cold water
mollusks. The idea was first proposed in 1983 and evidence was added
from Japan and Greenland. Skeptics claim that the change was due to
mollusks harvested from now vanished warm water lagoons.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)
2627BC Parts of Caral, a city in the Supe Valley
of Peru, was built about this time. The 170-acre site, 14 miles from
the coast, was discovered in 1905 but not dated till 2001. The city
had pyramids up to 70 feet tall and its population was believed to
have reached about 3,000.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A3)(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D6)(AM,
7/05, p.19,25)
2200BC In the Peruvian Andes a native culture
built a 33-foot pyramid about this time with an observatory marking
the summer and winter solstices. In 2006 archeologists working at
the Buena Vista site believed that fisherman from the coast had
moved to the site to grow cotton for making fishing nets.
(SFC, 5/15/06, p.A2)
2000BC In 2007 a temple dating to about this time
was unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the
oldest finds in the Americas. The mural filled temple, called
Ventarron, sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan
complex unearthed in the 1980s.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2000BC In 2008 researchers reported that the
earliest known gold jewelry made in the Americas had been discovered
in southern Peru. The gold necklace, made nearly 4,000 years ago,
was found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca.
(AP, 3/31/08)
c1300BC The Paracas culture originated about this
time along the southern coast of Peru. They mummified their dead and
created fine textiles.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.30)
c1200-300BC A pre-Columbian culture flourished
over this time in the Andes site of Chavin de Huantar.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A20)
c1000BC In 1999 the tomb of a Huayakuntur Indian
of this time was found in Ayabaca province.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A12)
950BC Peanuts have been traced
back to this time in Brazil and Peru.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)
c700BC-900AD Natives of the Nasca culture drew
lines and geometrical figures into the coastal desert during this
period that were over a mile long.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A16)
c500BC Monumental ceremonial centers on the
Peruvian coast were abandoned about this time. The period was later
found to correspond with an increase in el Nino frequency,
(AM, 9/01, p.18)
400BC-540CE The Inca Early
Intermediate Period.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.28)
350BC The Chavin civilization
had a settlement at this time on the north-western coast of Peru.
The elite of this civilization tracked the movement of the sun
throughout the year.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.84)
c100-700 A group of agricultural Indians (today
called the Moche) inhabit the desert margin between the Andes and
the Pacific in what is today called Peru. They raised huge monuments
of sun baked mud where they laid their dead with fine gold and
pottery. They irrigated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and
peanuts. The ate llamas and guinea pigs and caught fish in the
Pacific. [2nd source dated the Moche from 0-800] The Nasca [Nazca]
Indians also inhabited this area about this time.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 510)(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.16)
c100-700 The Nazca Lines are a complex series of
huge birds, animals and other figures etched over a 35-mile stretch
of high desert by the Nazca culture some 225 miles southeast of
Lima.
(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A14)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A24)
c100-700 Moche people built elaborate settlements
along 300 miles of Peru’s coast that included Huaco Cao Viejo.
(NG, 7/04, p.108)
450 In Peru a tattooed Moche
woman was entombed about this time, at a site later called El Brujo,
with a sacrificed teenage slave and a collection of weapons and
jewelry. In 2006 her mummy was discovered in a pyramid called Huaca
Cao Viejo.
(SFC, 5/17/06, p.A2)
c500 A Moche pyramid from this
time at Dos Cabezas contained tombs that archeologists found in
1997. The tombs revealed people of unusual height along with
miniatures of the deceased and the tomb’s contents.
(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A7)
563-594 In northern Peru a 30-year mega el
Niño weather period began that caused major flooding in areas
populated by the Moche people.
(PBS,
10/1/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche)
594 In Peru a 30-year drought
began about this time that followed years of flooding in areas
populated by the Moche people.
(PBS,
10/1/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche)
650-700 In northern Peru archeological evidence
later indicated that civil strife during this period, which followed
some 30 years of drought, led to the demise of the Moche
civilization.
(PBS,
10/1/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche)
750-1375 The Sican culture flourished on Peru's
northern desert coast. In 2006 archaeologists unearthed 22 graves
containing a trove of Sican artifacts, including the first "tumi"
ceremonial knives ever discovered by archaeologists rather than
looted by thieves.
(AP, 11/22/06)
c900 In Peru the Lambayeque
people established themselves over areas previously developed by the
Moche.
(NG, 7/04, p.116)
900-1200 The Killke people occupied the region
around Cuzco, Peru, from 900 to 1200 A.D., prior to the arrival of
the Incas. In 2008 Archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient
temple, roadway and irrigation systems at Sacsayhuaman, a famed
fortress overlooking Cuzco, that shed light on the pre-Inca cultures
of Peru.
(AP, 3/15/08)
c1000 An early Andean culture
known as the Huari cultivated crops with complex irrigation systems
back to this time.
(NH, 10/02, p.62)
1438 The Incas established an
imperial state in the Andes (Peru) and Cusco was rebuilt. They went
on to build over 25,000 miles of roads.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A2)(NG, Feb, 04, p.72)
1450-1532 The period of the Inca Empire. Inca
mummies were later found on Mt. Ampato in 1995 and 1997. In 1998
archeologist found 6 frozen mummies sacrificed to Inca gods near the
crater of the 19,100 foot El Misti volcano, 465 miles southeast of
Lima, Peru.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.16)(SFC,12/13/97, p.A14)(SFC,
10/3/98, p.C1)
1460-1470 Machu Pichu was built under the Inca
King Pachacuti in the Peruvian Andes. It was occupied for about 50
years before 180 Spanish conquistadors wiped out a 40,000-man Inca
army. In 2003 a nearby complex of structures called Llactapata (high
city) was discovered.
(SFC, 11/8/03, p.A2)
1480-1533 A huge Inca cemetery was active in Lima
at this time. It was uncovered in 2002 with some 2,200 mummies.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A4)
1502-1533 Atahualpa, emperor of the Incas. He had
a fortune in gold and silver and tried to purchase his freedom from
Pizarro for a chamber filled with gold. Pizarro took 124 tons of
gold in ransom and then re-arrested Atahualpa for treason to the
Spanish crown and had him decapitated.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1522 Pascual de Andagoya,
Spanish explorer, became the first European to set foot in Peru.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1525 The Spanish made initial
contact with the Incas.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A2)
c1525 First found in Peru by
invading Spaniards, the tomato was also known as a "love apple" or
"wolf peach" and regarded with suspicion and shunned as food. It was
believed to be unhealthy or downright poisonous and given the Latin
name Lycopersicon, or "wolf peach." In Europe it was thought to be a
potent-and thus forbidden-aphrodisiac, hence the name "love apple."
Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes in the late 1700s, but they weren't
widely consumed in Europe and America until the early 1800s.
(HNQ, 1/3/99)
1529 Jul 26, Francisco Pizarro
was made governor for life and captain-general in New Spain. He
returned to Peru in a fleet of three ships. Pizarro received a royal
warrant in Toledo, Spain, to "discover and conquer" Peru.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(HN, 7/26/98)
1530’s The Spanish invasion
forced the Incas to retreat.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-5)
1532 Nov 16, Pizarro first
encountered Incan emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca, who declined
conversion to Christianity. Pizzaro and 167 fellow Spaniards,
armored and on horseback, killed or wounded some 6,000 to 7,000
natives and captured emperor Atahualpa. In 2007 Kim MacQuarrie
authored “The Last Days of the Incas.
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.M2)
1532 Spanish conquistadores
reached the high valley of the Andes. Pizzaro entered Cuzco, Inca
capital of Peru.
(V.D.-H.K.p.11)
1532 Francisco Pizzaro (54)
with 183 soldiers entered the lowlands of northern Peru near
Cajamarca, the capital of the Incan empire.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)
1533 Aug 28, Atahualpa, last of
the Inca rulers was strangled at the orders of Spanish conquistador
Francisco Pizarro. The Inca empire died with him.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1533 Aug 29, Francisco Pizarro
captured Cuzco and completed his conquest of Peru. He ordered the
imprisonment and murder of Atahualpa, the last ruler of the Incan
Empire. Atahualpa was executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro,
although the chief had already paid his ransom. Ruminahui
(Rumanahui), a general of Atahualpa, led 15,000 soldiers into the
mountains north of Quito, after Pizarro killed the Inca emperor
Atahualpa. His forces carried an estimated 70,000 man-loads of gold.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(AP, 8/29/97) (SFEC, 7/5/98,
p.A10)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A15)(HN, 8/29/98)
1533 Nov 15, Francisco Pizarro
entered Cuzco, Peru. [see Aug 29]
(HN, 11/15/98)
1535 Jan 6, Lima, Peru, was
founded by Francisco Pizarro. [see Jan 18]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.15)(WSJ, 7/2/97, p.B8)(MC,
1/6/02)
1535 Jan 18, Francisco Pizarro
founded Lima Peru. [see Jan 6]
(MC, 1/18/02)
1535 Francisco de Orellana
accompanied Francisco Pizarro on the latter's conquest of Peru.
(HNQ, 2/11/01)
1536 Spanish soldiers crushed
an Indian revolt and Incas fled to Peru’s Vilcabamba region. In 2002
archeologists uncovered a settlement on Cerro Victorio.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A2)
1540 Arequipa was founded by
Spanish conquerors.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1541 Jun 26, Francisco Pizarro,
the Spanish Conqueror of Peru, was murdered by his former followers
in Lima.
(HN, 6/26/98)(MC, 6/26/02)
1551 May 12, San Marcos
University opened in Lima, Peru. The Universidad Nacional Mayor de
San Marcos was founded under Spanish royal charter.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(AM, 7/01, p.18)(Econ,
10/8/11, p.47)
1553 Pedro Cieza de Leon wrote
the first European description of the potato in his “Chronicles of
Peru.”
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1569 Dec 9, Martinus de Porres,
saint (patron of social justice), was born in Peru.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1578 Dec 5, Sir Francis Drake
sailed into the port of Valparaiso. He had renamed his flagship, the
Pelican, to the Golden Hind, and ravaged the coasts of Chile and
Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 7/03, p.7)
c1580 Tupac Amuru, an Inca
leader, held out against the Spanish conquest after most of the
empire had been subdued.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1600 Feb 18, Arequipa, Peru,
was destroyed by an earthquake. Huaynaputina was the site of a
monogenetic silicic eruption that ranks greater than 1883 Krakatau
and 1991 Mt. Pinatubo in magnitude. A 26 hour-long plinian eruption
devastated the socioeconomic fabric of southern Peru and neighboring
Chile and Bolivia.
(SSFC, 6/24/01,
p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/ydmwzba)
1604 Agustino Salumbrino, a
Jesuit monk, left Rome for Peru, where he studied native plants for
their healing powers, especially the bark of the cinchona tree used
by the Incas to treat shivering. By 1630 quinine entered the
literature as a treatment. In 2003 Fiammetta Rocco authored "The
Miraculous Fever Tree: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed
the World."
(WUD, 1994, p.1245)(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.8)(WSJ,
8/26/03, p.D5)
1617 Aug 30, Rosa de Lima of
Peru became the first American saint to be canonized.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1623 Apr 29, 11 Dutch ships
departed for the conquest of Peru.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1639 Jan 23, Francisco
Maldonado da Silva Solis, Peruvian poet, was burned at stake.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1639 Nov 3, Martinus de Porres
(69), Peru saint (patron of social justice), died.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1667 Arequipa was hit by an
earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1668 Arequipa was hit by
another earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1700s In 1927 Thornton Wilder
wrote “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” It was set in Peru in the early
1700s when a rope bridge broke that sent 5 people to their death.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)
1746 Oct 28, The Peruvian
cities of Lima and Callao were demolished by an earthquake. 18,000
died.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1749 Mar, Jean Godin, French
geographer, left Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (later
Ecuador), in an attempt to reach France to settle his family estate.
He traveled by an eastern route across South America and became
stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years. In 2004 Robert Whitaker
authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and
Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792),
French mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Godin. They managed to reunite
in 1770.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.4)
1778 Feb 25, Jose Francisco de
San Martin (d.1850) was born in Argentina. He liberated Argentina,
Chile and Peru. Protector of Peru (1821-1822).
(WUD, 1994 p.1267)(MC, 2/25/02)
1780 Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui
led a failed Indian revolt against the Spanish. He appropriated the
name of an earlier Inca leader and became Tupac Amuru II.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1781 Tupac Amuru II was
executed.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A12)
1800-1900 The 19th century Andean explorer,
Antonuio Raimondi, had drawn a map with the words Machu Picchu in
the correct location.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-5)
c1800-1900 A native named Fitzcarraldo attempted
to build a Peruvian rain forest opera house to attract the singer
Caruso. The 1982 film "Fitzcarraldo" by Werner Herzog was Herzog's
version of the story.
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.2E)
1804 Oct 5, The Nuestra Senora
de las Mercedes, a Spanish galleon, was sunk by the British navy
southwest of Portugal with more than 200 people on board. In May
2007, Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it had discovered a
wreck in the Atlantic and its cargo of 500,000 silver coins and
other artifacts worth an estimated $500 million. Spain claimed this
was the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. In 2009 Peru pushed claims
to the silver coins arguing that they were minted in Lima. In 2012 a
US judge ordered that the treasure be returned to Spain.
(AP,
5/8/08)(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/24/usa.spain)(AP,
1/29/09)(SFC, 2/18/12, p.A7)
1814 Jose Francisco de San
Martin (1778-1850) became general in chief of Argentina’s Army of
the North. His primary mission was to protect Argentina against
Spanish royalists in Peru.
(ON, 10/09, p.8)
1820 Oct, Argentina’s Jose de
San Martin blockaded Lima, Peru, and urged the people of Peru to
join in the uprising against Spain.
(www.gdws.co.uk/chacabuco.htm)(Econ, 4/25/09,
p.87)(ON, 10/09, p.10)
1820 Dec 7, Peru’s army, after
sweeping out the Spanish, swore in the first mayor of the Peruvian
Republic, in Chaupimarca plaza, the central district of Cerro de
Pasco. By 2010 the town faced destruction due to industrial mining.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1821 Jul 28, Peru declared its
independence from Spain. Lima had been the seat of the Spanish
viceroys until this time. Jose Francisco de San Martin of Argentina
had blockaded Lima and forced the Spanish viceroy to abandon the
city. Martin returned to Argentina in 1822
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(AP, 7/28/97)(ON, 10/09,
p.10)
1821-1822 Jose Francisco de San Martin (d.1850)
served as Protector of Peru.
(WUD, 1994 p.1267)(MC, 2/25/02)
1823 Sep 10, Simon Bolivar was
named president of Peru and assumed the presidency with dictatorial
powers. He had led the wars for independence from Spain in
Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1824 Feb 10, Simon Bolivar was
named President by the Congress of Peru.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1824 Aug 24, Simon Bolivar's
army beat the Spanish in Peru in the Battle at Junin.
(PC, 1992, p.394)
1824 Dec 9, In the Battle of
Ayacucho (Candorcangui) Peru defeated Spain.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1825 Aug 6, Simon Bolivar drew
up a constitution for Bolivia in which a life president appointed
his successor. Sucre served as the sole capital until losing a brief
civil war to La Paz in 1899. Upper Peru became the autonomous
republic of Bolivia.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.77)(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 8/6/08)
1829 Sep 25, There was a failed
assassination attempt on Simon Bolivar.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1830 The government of Peru
exempted guano from taxes. The commercial mining and export of the
rich fertilizer soon followed.
(www.newscotland1398.net/remem/cannonsndx.html)
1839 Jan 20, Chile defeated a
confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1849-1875 Some 100,000 Chinese coolies arrived as
laborers in Peru during this period.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.21)
1862 Peruvian slavers arrived
on Easter Island. Slaves that eventually returned brought smallpox.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1867 German businessman named
Augusto R. Berns purchased land across from Machu Picchu, Peru, and
an 1887 document showed he set up a company to plunder the site.
(AP, 6/5/08)
1868 Aug 13, A magnitude 9.0
quake in Arica, Peru (later Chile), generated catastrophic tsunamis;
more than 25,000 people were killed in South America.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1879-1883 In the War of the Pacific, Chile’s army
won the nitrate-rich desert lands from Peru and Bolivia. The war was
fought over the treatment of Chilean investors in the desert
territories. The area remained in contention until a 1929 agreement
proposed by Pres. Herbert Hoover.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1881 Chilean soldiers pillaged
Peru’s national library during the War of the Pacific. In 2007 Chile
returned 3,778 books taken by its soldiers.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A3)
1901-1966 Rafael Larco Hoyle, founder of the Museo
Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera in Lima.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.C5)
1902 In Peru US-owned Cerro de
Pasco Corp. started to buy up mines in Cerro de Pasco and brought
industrial mining, creating a boomtown. A half century later in
1956, the company turned to strip mining and started gouging the
pit, which has since swallowed more than half the original urban
center. State-run Centromin continued the pit expansion after a 1973
expropriation of the US company; Volcan since 1999.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1911 Jul 24, Hiram Bingham,
American explorer, was led by local guides to a Lost City of the
Incas. He explored several Inca ruins and the mountaintop citadel of
Machu Pichu. He was in search of the lost city of Vilcabamba, the
Inca’s legendary last refuge from the invading Spaniards. Bingham
was an archeologist from Yale and later served as a Connecticut
governor and US senator. In 1948 Bingham authored “Lost City of the
Incas.”
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 543)(SFC, 5/13/98,
p.C4)(www.tambotours.com/binghamtrek.html)(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.W18)
1916 Nov 28, Hiram Bingham,
American explorer, wrote a letter to Gilbert H. Graham, the
president of National Geographic, in which he stated that artifacts
from his 3rd expedition to Peru belonged to the Peruvian government,
which expected their return in 18 months. A dispute over the return
of artifacts from Yale back to Peru continued in 2006. In 2010 Yale
made arrangements to return the collection in stages over the next 2
years.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A12)(Econ, 11/27/10, p.47)
1918 Nov 25, Chile and Peru
severed relations.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1927 Sep 10, Yma Sumac,
[Chavarri], 5 octave soprano (Omar Khayyam), was born in Ichocan,
Peru.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1926 The Museo Arqueologico
Rafael Larco Herrera was founded in Lima by archeologist Rafael
Larco Hoyle and named after his father.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.16)
1929 Jun 3, Chile, Peru &
Bolivia signed an accord about the Tacna-Arica area. Chile and Peru
accepted a proposal by Pres. Herbert Hoover over the outcome of the
1879-1893 War of the Pacific. Chile would retain Arica and return
Tacna to Peru and grant access to the Arica port as a compromise.
The accord was not implemented until 1999.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)(MC, 6/3/02)
1932 Chile and Peru signed an
extradition treaty.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.40)
1936 Mar 28, Mario Vargas
Llosa, Peruvian novelist (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Death in
the Andes), was born.
(HN, 3/28/01)
1938 Cesar Vallejo (b.1892),
Peruvian poet, died. His 1918 book "The Black Heralds" was
translated into English in 2003 by Rebecca Seiferle.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.M4)
1941 Peru and Ecuador went to
war over a border conflict.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1942 Nov 20, Meredith Monk,
choreographer, composer and performing artist, was born in Lima,
Peru.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 A treaty set the
1,050-mile border between Peru and Ecuador, but a 49-mile stretch in
the Cordillera del Condor region was not demarcated.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1945 Feb 14, Peru, Paraguay,
Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1945 Mar 13, Peru declared war
on Germany.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1952 Feb 22, The U.S. signed a
military aid pact with Peru.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1958 May 8, Vice President
Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American
protesters in Lima, Peru. Vice President Richard Nixon’s
eight-nation South America goodwill tour in May 1958 encountered
violent demonstrations, particularly in Peru and Venezuela, spurring
President Dwight Eisenhower to order the movement of U.S. forces
into Caribbean bases.
(AP, 5/8/97)(HNQ, 6/14/99)
1958 Arequipa was hit by an
earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1959 Pres. Manuel Prado
confined Fernando Belaunde (d.2002) to an island prison.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A23)
1960 Arequipa, Peru, was hit by
another earthquake. [see Chile, May 22, 1960]
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1962 Jan 10, Eruptions on Mount
Huascaran in Peru destroyed 7 villages and killed 3,500.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1963 Fernando Belaunde (d.2002)
was elected president.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A23)
1965 Peru cut a trail through
the jungle to Inapari, its border town across from Assis, Brazil.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.40)
1966 May 25, Peru and Argentina
soccer fans fought in Lima and 248 died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1967 Peru and 3 other countries
in South America banned trade in vicuna, a relative of the llama,
after numbers had severely dwindled. A CITES ban followed in 1975.
(Econ, 3/8/08,
p.86)(www.rumbosonline.com/articles/4-46-vicuna.htm)
1968 Oct 3, In Peru the
military seized power in a coup. Pres. Belaunde was overthrown by
Gen. Juan Velasco.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC,
6/5/02, p.A23)
1968 Oct 9, The new military
government of Peru seized the country's oil fields.
(AP, 10/9/08)
1968-1975 The pro-Soviet Velasco Alvarado regime
ruled Peru. The military government expropriated the sugar estates
on the country’s north coast turning them into government-owned
cooperatives.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A7)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.38)
1969 Feb 17, Russia and Peru
signed their first trade accord.
(www.historynet.com/tdih0217.htm)
1969 Jul 24, Petroleos del Peru
(PETROPERU S.A.) was created (law No.17753) as a state-owned entity.
(http://tinyurl.com/554vke)
1969 Peru’s government banned
the trade of vicuna fleece as hunters drove the animals close to
extinction.
(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.A14)
1970 May 31, A 7.7 slab
earthquake and debris flow in Peru killed 67,000, injured 50,000 and
destroyed 186,000 buildings.
(AP,
5/31/97)(http://landslides.usgs.gov/html_files/landslides/slides/slide5.htm)
1970s Vladimiro Montesinos, an
army captain, was arrested and convicted of selling Peruvian
military secrets to the US. He served a year in prison and then
became a drug lawyer.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D3)
1971 Dec 24, LANSA Flight 508,
a LANSA Lockheed Electra OB-R-941 commercial airliner, crashed in
the Peruvian rainforest. Juliane Diller Kopcke (17) of Lima, Peru,
was the sole survivor of 92 passengers. She and her mother, famed
ornithologist Maria Kopcke, were traveling to meet with her father,
biologist Hans-Wilhelm Kopcke. Juliane traveled for 9 days in the
jungle before she found help. Her experience became the subject of
two films: the 1974 Giuseppe Maria Scotese film Miracoli accadono
ancora, I (Miracles Still Happen), and the 2000 film “Wings of Hope”
by Werner Herzog film.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_K%C3%B6pcke)
1972-1981 Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru served
as the Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1972-1973 El Nino currents led to the collapse of
the Peruvian anchovy industry. The annual catch had peaked at 12
million tons.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A7)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.41)
1973 Peru outlawed the export
of rain forest birds.
(NG, Jan. 94, p.124)
1974 Pres. Juan Velasco
Alvarado took over the Peruvian press.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 14)
1975 Aug 29, In Peru Gen.
Francisco Belaunde (b.1921) began serving as president. He continued
to July 28, 1980.
(WSJ, 12/27/96,
p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Morales_Berm%C3%BAdez)
1975 Peru’s sugar output peaked
at 1 million tons.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.38)
1977 Eva Ayllon made her
recording debut with the Creole group Trio Los Kipus: “Los Kipus y
Eva.”
(SFEC, 7/23/00, DB p.39)
1977 The Manu National Park,
4.6 million acres between Cuzco and Madre de Dios provinces, was
declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A5)
1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was
established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian
initiative designed to coordinate the joint development of the
Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1978 Dec, Nestor Cerpa, union
leader, led 50 workers in the occupation of the Cromotex textile
factory in Lima over low wages and layoffs. They held the plant for
more than 6 weeks before the police stormed it. Six workers and a
police officer were killed.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10,12)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A8)
1979 Feb 4, Police stormed the
union held Cromotex factory in Lima. Nestor Cerpa was jailed for a
year.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10,12)
1980 May 18, Former president
Fernando Belaunde Terry was elected president of Peru. Democracy was
restored and the media was free again.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A11)(SFC,
6/5/02, p.A23)(SC, 5/18/02)
1980 Jul 28, Fernando Belaunde
Terry (1912-2002) became president of Peru for a 2nd term and held
office to 1985. His first term ran from 1963-1968.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Bela%C3%BAnde_Terry)
1980 The Shining Path rebellion
began at a university in a provincial capital.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A24)
1980-1990s In 2003 Peruvian investigators
dramatically increased their estimate of the death toll from a
two-decade fight against Shining Path rebels, saying they now
believe between 40,000 and 60,000 people perished or disappeared.
(AP, 6/18/03)
1980-1993 The Peru war unleashed by Sendero, a
Maoist group, left some 30,000 dead.
(Econ, 7/19/03, p.28)
1981 Dec 11, The UN Security
Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be the fifth
secretary-general of the world body. He served to 1992.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/11/97)
1981 Mario Vargas Llosa of
Peru wrote a fictional account of the 1893-1897 events at Canudos,
Brazil, in the epic work: “The War of the End of the World.”
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1982 Mar 2, In Peru over 50
Shining Path terrorists attack the prison of Ayacucho, releasing
drug traffickers and 54 terrorists held there. The leader of the
attack, Edith Lagos, was killed in the battle.
(www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2246_sendero.html)
1982 The film "Fitzcarraldo"
starred Klaus Kinski and was an Amazonian epic by Werner Herzog. It
was inspired by a would-be rubber baron who hauled a boat over a
Peruvian mountain to harvest a forest of rubber trees because he
wanted to build an opera house in the jungle. In 2009 Herzog
authored “conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of
Fitzcarraldo.
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.2E)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.C3)(Econ,
6/27/09, p.92)
1982-1983 El Nino weather caused about $1 billion
in damage.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A10)
1983 May 28, In Peru 15
peasants were murdered by soldiers near the village of Totos. A
witness pointed out their graves in 2004.
(AP, 5/29/04)
1983 The Cuban-inspired Tupac
Amuru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) was formed.
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A11)
1983 Tupac Amuru rebels stole
the sword from the statue of the a Peruvian national hero.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)
1983 Seven journalists and
their guide were slain in an Andean village.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A8)
1984 Dec 13, In Peru 123
people, including men, women and children from area farming
communities, were slaughtered at Putis, in Ayacucho province. Army
soldiers suspected the farmers supported guerrillas with the Shining
Path. According to a later government-appointed truth commission,
the military offered Putis as a safe haven for people fleeing
Shining Path rebels in the region. Soldiers then tricked villagers
into digging their own grave and killed them on suspicion of ties to
the guerrillas. In 2008 a Peruvian forensics team began excavating a
mass grave containing the remains of 123 men, women and children
killed by the military at Putis. In 2009 DNA tests identified 28 of
92 bodies, including 15 women and five children.
(AP, 5/25/08)(AFP, 5/30/08)(AP, 2/26/09)(AP,
8/30/09)
1984 Hernando de Soto presented
the results of his study on Peru’s informal economy. He had mapped
the migration of mountain people to urban Lima, where they squatted
on undeveloped public land and created vibrant informal economies.
In 1986 he published his results in the book: ”The Other Path.”
(WSJ, 10/9/00, p.A38)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.11)
1984 The Cuban-inspired Tupac
Amuru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took up arms.
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A1)
1985 Jul 28, In Peru Alan
Garcia, leader of the American People’s Revolutionary Alliance
(APRA), assumed the presidency and led until 1990. Under his rule
much of the nation's external debt was not serviced and the period
was marked by 4-digit inflation, food shortages, int’l. isolation
and terrorist attacks.
(WSJ, 10/31/95, p.C-17)(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A7)(SFC,
1/18/01, p.A14)
1985 Nov, In Peru rebels took
over a Lima newspaper. Nestor Cerpa revealed himself as the leader.
As Comrade Evaristo he had begun a series of attacks, takeovers and
kidnappings.
(SFC, 12/25/96,
p.A12)(www.emergency.com/peruhos3.htm)
1985 In Peru the military was
involved in the massacre of 72 peasants in Accomarca, a village in
the Ayacucho region, where the Shining Path was founded. In 2005 a
judge issued arrest warrants for 29 current and former military
officials for the massacre. In 2008 a US federal judge in Miami
ordered former Peruvian Major Telmo Hurtado to pay $37 million for
his role in the massacre in which 69 civilians were slain.
(AP, 7/6/05)(SFC, 3/6/08, p.A2)
1985 The Ministry of Fisheries
estimated that 9,700 dolphins were killed and sold as “chancho
marino” i.e. sea pig.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1985-1990 The government of Peru was led by Alan
Garcia. Much of the nation's external debt was not serviced. The
period was marked by 4-digit inflation, food shortages, int’l.
isolation and terrorist attacks.
(WSJ, 10/31/95, p.C-17)(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A14)
1986 Hernando de Soto, Peruvian
economist, authored “The Other Path,” in which he called the rise of
a popular capitalism as opposed to the corporate state.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.11)
1986 In Lima, Peru, 150
imprisoned Shining Path rebels were killed following riots in 3
jails.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A8)
1987 Nov 2, During the All
Souls holiday a 20 person raiding party of the Maoist Shining path
attacked the mountain community of Lucanas. They burned down the
municipal hall and several stores and then dragged a local political
leader and 7 merchants from their homes and stoned them to death.
(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.A12)
1988 May 14, Peru’s military
was involved in the massacre of at least 26 peasants in the Andean
village of Cayara. A week later the military executed 3 more
peasants, before systematically killing 8 witnesses. In 2005 a
Peruvian judge ordered the arrest of 118 current and retired
military officials for the slayings.
(AP, 7/6/05)
1988 In Peru Tupac Amaru
kidnapped industrialist Hector Jeri, a 70-year-old former air force
general. He spent 5 months in a cell until released by a payment of
more than $1 million.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)
1988 In southern Peru Eduardo
and Mirtha Ananos began making a cola drink. By 2003 their Kola Real
was being marketed in Mexico and Ecuador.
(WSJ, 10/27/03, p.A1)(Econ, 10/11/03, p.69)
1988 In northern Peru a tomb
was looted and its contents put on the black market. A golden
head-dress, the image of a sea god, believed to have been taken from
the La Mina archaeological site in the Jequetepeque valley, was
recovered in 2006 by London police from a lawyer’s office.
(AP, 8/17/06)
1989 In Peru squatters occupied
a Lima site known as Puruchuco-Huaquerones. As they built homes they
kept bumping into Inca mummy bundles.
(Arch, 7/02, p.16)
1989 Eduardo Nycander and Kurt
Holle co-founded Rainforests Expeditions in Peru to use tourism to
foster conservation.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.42)
1989 Gene Savoy, explorer,
discovered pottery and monolithic tablets in the cloud forest of
northern Peru that he said showed native contact with ancient
cultures in other parts of the world. The area was the homeland of
the Chachapoya Indian kingdom.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A13)
1990 May 29, Northern Peru was
struck by an earthquake that claimed as many as 200 lives.
(www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/OCHA-64C3R8?OpenDocument)
1990 Jun 10, Alberto Fujimori
was elected president of Peru by a narrow margin over novelist Mario
Vargos Llosa. Peru began to deal with its debt load for the first
time since 1983. The principal was 4.4 bil and the back interest was
estimated to be 4-4.3 bil.
(WSJ, 10/31/95, p.C-17)(AP, 6/10/00)
1990 Jul 28, Political newcomer
and upset winner Alberto Fujimori was sworn in as president of Peru.
(AP, 7/28/00)
1990 Vladimiro Montesinos
became the head of Peru’s intelligence services.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)
1990 In Peru 49 members of the
MRTA, including their leader Victor Polay, escaped from the Canto
Grande prison near Lima.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1990 In Peru the MRTA
assassinated a former defense minister.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1990 The killing and selling of
dolphins became illegal in Peru, and the market went underground.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1990 In Peru the inflation rate
hit 7,500%.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.66)
1991 Nov 3, Hooded men with
automatic weapons with silencers burst into the inner patio of a
downtown Lima tenement and killed 15 people at a barbecue, including
an 8-year-old boy. The Colina death squad run by Vladimiro
Montesinos was suspected. In 2001 the attorney general asked
Congress to pursue homicide charges against former Pres. Fujimori
for the murders. In 2008 two survivors of the attack testified at
the murder trial of former President Alberto Fujimori.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/08)
1991 Peruvians desperate for
work rushed into the taxi and bus businesses with little training
after Peru lowered used-vehicle import tariffs to ease a transport
shortage.
(AP, 7/16/06)
1991 In Peru there was a
cholera epidemic.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A4)
1992 Apr 5, Pres. Fujimori
seized dictatorial power by sending tanks to shut down Peru's
Congress and judiciary. Former president Alan Garcia fled Peru to
avoid arrest by the Fujimori regime. In 2008 Peru's Cabinet chief
testified at the trial of former President Alberto Fujimori that
security forces attempted to assassinate Garcia following the shut
down of Congress.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.D4)(AP, 1/18/08)
1992 Apr 6, In Peru journalist
Gustavo Gorriti was kidnapped hours after Fujimori seized
dictatorial powers, announcing over television that he was closing
Congress because it was sabotaging his war against the rebels.
Gorriti was released the next day after an intense campaign by
international journalist associations and human rights groups for
his freedom. Pres. Fujimori closed Congress and the judiciary and
ruled by decree for the rest of the year.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)(AP, 1/5/08)
1992 Jul 18, In Peru 9 students
and a univ. teacher were killed at La Cantuta Univ. Later retired
Gen’l. Rodolfo Robles charged that an army death squad, the Colina
Group, was responsible. Death squad members were convicted and then
released in a 1995 general amnesty. In 2008 a former general and
three members of a military death squad were found guilty of
participating in the kidnapping and murder.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)(SFC, 12/2/96, p.A14)(SFC,
8/23/01, p.A8)(AP, 4/9/08)
1992 Sep 12, In Peru the
Shining Path guerilla leader Abimael Guzman was captured by police
chief Ketin Vidal with help from a CIA operative nick-named
“Superman.” Oscar Ramirez, aka Feliciano, took over the leadership.
Guzman, a former philosophy professor, was tried by a military court
and sentenced to life in jail. The verdict was overturned in Jan
2003.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.C10)(SFC,
12/8/00, p.A20)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.44)
1992 Victor Polay, chief of the
Tupac Amaru guerrillas was captured with his chief lieutenant Peter
Cardenas.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A17)(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A12)
1992 In Peru Lt. Col. Ollanta
Humala commanded a jungle counterinsurgency base. In 2006 criminal
complaints accused Humala, a contender in presidential elections, of
forced disappearance, torture and attempted murder during his 1992
command.
(AP, 2/17/06)
1992 Peru’s government sold
rights to the country’s annual vicuna production to Loro Piana, an
Italian textile manufacturer. Piana formed a consortium which agreed
to pay around $400 a kilogram (about 2 pounds) for the vicuna
fleece.
(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.A14)
1992 China’s Shougang company
bought an iron ore mine in Peru. This was China’s first investment
in the region.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.20)
1993 Apr, In Peru a younger
sister of Luz Dina Villoslada was raped by the son of a local coffee
grower. Authorities were bribed to drop the investigation. Luz Dina
joined the Tupac Amaru guerrillas in rebellion. She was 20 years old
and one of the 14 rebels slain in the 1997 Lima hostage siege.
(SFC, 5/1/97, p.A14)
1993 Jul, Top commanders of the
Tupac Amaru guerrilla conceded defeat and surrendered.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A17)
1993 Nov 13, In Peru military
officers attempted another coup against Pres. Fujimori.
(SFC, 9/17/96,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori)
1993 Mario Vargas Llosa
published his book “Death in the Andes” in Peru. The English version
was published in 1996. It is a fictionalized account of some of the
worst atrocities committed by and in reaction to Peru’s Sendero
Luminoso (Shining path) guerrillas.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-8)
1993 In Peru Magno Sosa wrote
“The Sin of Being a Journalist” after spending 6 months wrongly
imprisoned on terrorism charges after reporting on human rights
violations.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A14)
1993 In Peru a new constitution
was narrowly approved that allowed Fujimori to seek a 2nd 5-year
term. It prohibited a 3rd term but 3 years later legislation was
passed that excluded Fujimori from the restriction because his term
began before the document was written.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(SFC, 12/28/99, p.B2)
1993 Peru ratified the Int’l.
Labor Organization’s convention on indigenous peoples.
(Econ, 9/3/11, p.36)
1993 In Peru General Rodolfo
Robles accused intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos of heading a
government backed depth squad. The investigation was stone-walled by
the government-loyal Congress.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A11)
1994 Aug 28, A Drug Enforcement
Administration plane crashed in a remote area of Peru's
cocaine-producing jungle, killing five U.S. agents.
(AP, 8/28/99)
1994 Mario Vargas Llosa
published “A Fish in the Water,” a memoir of his political campaign
for the 1999 presidency.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, BR p.4)
1994 Lori Helene Berenson, an
American, arrived in Peru from El Salvador where she had worked as
the personal secretary to Leonel Gonzalez, top commander of the FMLN
guerrillas.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A7)
1994 Alpacas from Peru began
arriving in the US after barriers with Peru were removed.
(WSJ, 4/5/07, p.A10)
1995 Jan, In Peru Manuel Lopez
Paredes was arrested. Police discovered 3.5 tons of cocaine, valued
at more than $600 million, ready for shipment by the family cartel.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A12)
1995 Apr 9, Alberto Fujimori
was re-elected president of Peru in a landslide victory.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 14)(AP, 4/9/00)
1995 Sep, The 500-year-old body
of a young Inca girl was found frozen near the summit of Mt. Ampato,
Peru, by American archeologist Johan Reinhard. In 2005 Reinhard
authored “The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and the
Sacred Sites in the Andes.”
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A8)(Arch, 5/05, p.51)
1995 Nov, Lori Helene Berenson,
an American, was arrested on charges of aiding MRTA. She was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Also arrested was Nancy
Gilvonio, wife of Nestor Cerpa, a Tupac Amaru rebel.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A8)
1995 In Peru a new government
austerity program slowed the growth rate to 3.7%.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-3)
1995 Peru’s government under
President Alberto Fujimori began a family planning program. It
promoted birth control as a way to reduce family size and poverty.
It was later cited as taking advantage of poor rural women to meet
quotas in sloppy operations under unsanitary conditions. At least 2
women were reported to have died and hundreds injured from the
operations. From 1995-2000 more than 300,000 women were sterilized,
mostly poor, illiterate Indians.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A26)(AP, 2/15/12)
1995 Ecuador engaged in a
border war with Peru. Argentine arms were transported to Ecuador by
the US Fine Air airline owned by Barry and Lary Fine. The Fine
brothers were tried in absentia in Lima in 1997.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A10)
1995-1998 The central government opened schools in
95 Ayacucho villages and potable water systems in 66 villages. The
Shining Path rebellion had killed some 30,000 people, mostly from
Ayacucho province.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A24)
1996 Jan 11, Lori Berenson was
sentenced to life in prison. In 2000 a military tribunal overturned
the life sentence and opened the way for a civilian trial.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10) (WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A1)
1996 Jan, Alberto Andrade, a
wealthy leather-goods maker, was elected mayor of Lima (pop. 7.5
mil.). He moved his family downtown and began efforts to revitalize
the city.
(WSJ, 7/2/97, p.B8)
1996 Feb 29, Mar 2, A Boeing
737 of the Peruvian domestic Fawcett Airlines crashed in the
southern Andes and killed 123 people.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A18)(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-14)
1996 May 18, A 40 year
agreement was signed between Royal Dutch/Shell and Perupetro, Peru’s
state oil company. Royal Dutch will spend $2.7 bil to develop a
natural gas field.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.D-6)
1996 May, Telefonica del Peru
is the fastest publicly traded telephone company in the world.
(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-6)
1996 Aug, Demetrio Chavez
Penaherrera, an imprisoned drug lord, told a court that the chief of
intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos, accepted bribes of $50,000 per
month in 1991-1992.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)
1996 Oct 2, The Aeroperu flight
603, a Boeing 757, crashed shortly after takeoff into the Pacific
and all 61 passengers and nine crew members were killed. The pilot
claimed loss of navigational equipment just before the crash. It was
later reported that a maintenance worker failed to remove tape from
sensors after polishing the aircraft. A judge ordered Aeroperu and
the worker to pay $29 million to families of the 70 dead.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.A8)(AP, 10/2/97)(WSJ, 1/22/98,
p.A1)
1996 Nov 12, A 6.4 earthquake
hit the country centered in the Pacific Ocean about 83 miles west of
Nazca, 235 miles southeast of Lima. About 17 people were killed and
some 1500 injured in the 7.7 earthquake.
(SFC, 11/13/96, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
1996 Nov 26, Gen’l Rodolfo
Robles was arrested at the request of the Supreme Military Justice
Council for insubordination. [see 1992]
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec 17, In Peru guerrillas
took over a party at the house of the Japanese ambassador in Lima.
They identified themselves as members of the Tupac Amaru guerrilla
movement and demanded the release of imprisoned guerrillas. Nestor
Cerpa Cartolini was later identified as the leader of the 20 or so
guerrillas. Cerpa’s common-law wife, Nancy Gilvonio, was one of the
imprisoned guerrillas whom he demanded be released. Pres. Fujimori’s
brother was one of the hostages. All but 72 hostages were later
released; the siege ended April 22, 1997, with a commando raid that
resulted in the deaths of all the rebels, two commandos and one
hostage.
(SFC,12/25/96,p.A12)(SFC,1/7/97,p.A10)(SFC,1/17/96, p.A12)(AP,
12/17/97)
1996 Dec 20, A handful of
rebels released 38 hostages and some 340 remained captive. The
rebels demanded concessions before any more would be released.
(SFC, 12/21/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 22, Peruvian
guerrillas holding more than 360 hostages at the Japanese
ambassador's residence in Lima released 225 hostages but still held
140 of their captives.
(SFC, 12/24/96, p.A7)(AP, 12/22/97)
1996 Dec 24, In Peru the
Uruguay ambassador was released after his country freed 2 rebels
jailed there. Six ambassadors were left among the remaining 105
hostages.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 25, Peruvians held
candles high and prayed outside the Japanese ambassador's residence,
where leftist rebels freed one hostage for health reasons, but
continued to hold more than 100 others.
(AP, 12/25/97)
1996 Dec 27, Pres. Fujimori
declared a 60-day state of emergency.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 28, Leftist rebels in
Peru released 20 more hostages, including two ambassadors, from
Japan's embassy residence, following the first face-to-face talks
between guerrillas and the government's negotiator.
(SFC, 12/29/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/28/97)
1996 Dec 31, Leftist rebels in
Peru released two diplomats, leaving 81 hostages in the besieged
Japanese embassy residence in Lima.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1996 The office of People's
Defender, Defensorio del Pueblo, was created to protect Peruvians
from abuse by public officials. The office was directed by Jorge
Santistevan.
(WSJ, 3/9/00, p.A1)
1997 Jan 2, Pres. Fujimori
replaced the president of the Supreme Court and six police generals,
who were among the hostages held by Tupac Amaru rebels. The hostage
count was down to 74.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A16)
1997 Jan 15, In Peru
intelligence officers took Leonor LaRosa, a fellow intelligence
agent, into custody and began torturing her on accusations that she
informed newspapers of military plans to intimidate and assassinate
opposition activists and journalists. La Rosa named 4 intelligence
agents as directly responsible. Ricardo Anderson was named as one of
the 4 agents.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)(WSJ,
5/30/00, p.A1)
1997 Feb 17, Leonor La Rosa was
taken to a military hospital following her torture and beatings.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 18, At least 33 people
were killed and a hundred were missing after an Andean mountain
collapsed and buried the villages of Choch and Pumaranra near
Abancay.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A11)
1997 Mar, Foreign officials and
local journalists confirmed that the police were digging tunnels to
the residence of the Japanese ambassador where hostages were being
held by the Tupac Amaru rebels.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A1)
1997 Mar, In Peru the body of
Mariela Barreto, an intelligence officer, was found with her head
and hands hacked off and her spine snapped in half.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A1)
1997 Apr 6, Leonor LaRosa
revealed her torture and beatings to a television station.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 22, In Peru on day 126
of the hostage crises government commandos stormed the home of the
Japanese envoy in Lima and freed 71 hostages. Two soldiers, all 14
Tupac Amaru rebels and one hostage, Justice Carlos Giusti,
died in the assault. Later reports indicated that some rebels were
killed while trying to surrender and that their bodies may have been
mutilated. The government planned to bury them in scattered unmarked
graves. In 2002 forensic evidence indicated that 8 of 14 rebels were
shot from behind after they surrendered at the end of the siege. A
prosecutor then filed charges against 18 army officers for executing
3 rebels after they surrendered. On Oct 15, 2003, a secret military
court dismissed charges against 140 commandos accused of summarily
executing three leftist rebels during a 1997 hostage rescue at the
Japanese ambassador's residence.
(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(SFC, 4/23/97, p.A1,8)(SFC,
4/25/97, p.A12)(AP, 4/22/98)(WSJ, 5/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/7/02,
p.A12)(AP, 11/14/03)
1997 May 5, The 24 miners who
dug tunnels for the Peruvian commandoes had still not returned home
and their families feared for their lives. Two men were killed or
injured in the digging operation.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A12)
1997 May 22, Security forces
captured the leaders of 2 Maoist Shining Path units after a weeklong
operation.
(WSJ, 5/23/97, pA1)
1997 May 29, The congressional
majority of Pres. Fujimori fired 3 constitutional court judges who
had ruled against his bid for a 3rd consecutive term.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.D1)
1997 May, A military court
sentenced 4 army officers to 8 years in prison for the torture of
Leonor LaRosa.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 6, The English
translation of “Making Waves” by Mario Vargas Llosa was reviewed.
The work is a collection of essays that go back to 1962.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.5)
1997 Jul 17, Thousands of
demonstrators protested against Pres. Fujimore chanting “Down with
the dictatorship.” Three cabinet ministers had also resigned in the
last 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 17, Pres. Fujimori
named 5 new ministers including 2 generals and sparked concern that
he was moving even closer to the armed forces.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A11)
1997 Aug 8, In Peru at least 20
bus passengers were killed in a crash in the province of Cuzco. Some
80 people have died in 4 bus crashes in the last week.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.C1)
1997 Aug 10, A snowstorm
trapped some 40 vehicles on the Andes highway between Abancay and
Puquio and left 6 people dead in their vehicles.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug, Two small planes
collided at the Nazca archeological site and 12 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 29, The government
announced that the practice of trying guerrillas by hooded anonymous
judges would end Oct 15.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 25, President Clinton
and Pacific Rim leaders meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia,
approved a rescue strategy for Asian economies shaken by plunging
currencies, bank failures and bankruptcies. The 2-day APEC summit in
Vancouver closed and leaders agreed to an IMF bailout plan. Forum
leaders also agreed to admit Russia, Vietnam and Peru into the
organization as of 1998.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C2)(HN, 11/25/98)
1997 Dec 2, Pres. Fujimori
ended the yearlong ban on visits by the Red Cross to jailed leftist
suspects.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.C5)
1997 Dec 12, Archeologists
announced the finding of a 2nd mummy of a young Inca sacrificed over
500 years ago near the summit of Mt. Ampato, not far from Peru’s 2nd
city Arequipa.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A14)
1997 Dec 26, Police reported
that a Peruvian family hacked 2 Japanese students to death. The
students had rowed on the Amazon for hundreds of miles with plans to
reach Manaus.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Jolanda and Titus from the
Netherlands began adopting street children in Cuzco, Peru. They soon
opened a hotel to provide financial support and soon expanded
operations into a collective known as the Ninos Projects. By 2003
some 250 children were involved. www.ninoshotel.com.
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.C8)
1997 A study by the Peruvian
government found that the country’s glaciers had shrunk by 22% over
the last 30 years. In the Carabaya range they had receded by 32%.
(WSJ, 6/17/05, p.A1)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.42)
1998 Jan 19, Peru and Ecuador
signed an accord pledging to settle their longtime 49-mile border
conflict by May.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 29, A mudslide in
Choco killed at least 31 people. Floods and mudslides have killed
over 100 and left 25,000 homeless in the last few months.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 6, Peru’s Pres.
Fujimori took personal control in Piura to shore up the waters of
the Ica River which burst its banks. Recent weather related deaths
had reached 150. Mudslide damaged parts of the famous Nazca Lines.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A10)(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 10, The Supreme Court
ruled that Pres. Fujimori would be allowed to run for re-election to
a 3rd tem in 2000 if he wants to.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.B3)
1998 Feb 25, It was reported
that the country was abandoning its campaign of sterilizing women.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 29, In Peru an air
force plane evacuating people stranded by flooding crashed in Piura.
Twenty-two people were killed when a Russian-made Antonov military
plane crashed into a Peruvian shantytown outside the northern city
of Piura.
(SFC, 3/30/98, p.A10)(AP, 3/29/99)
1998 Apr 24, Pres. Fujimori
announced that police captured 3 top guerrilla leaders of the
Shining Path.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A9)
1998 May 6, A Boeing 737,
chartered by Occidental Petroleum from the Peruvian air force,
crashed in the Amazon jungle. At least 13 of 87 people survived the
crash.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A1)
1998 May, The novel “The
Notebooks of Don Rigoberto” by Mario Vargas Llosa was translated
into English by Edith Grossman. His earlier novels included “Aunt
Julia and the Scriptwriter,” “The War of the End of the World,” and
“the Storyteller.”
(SFEC, 5/24/98, BR p.4)
1998 Jun 8, Maria Reiche, a
German mathematician, died in Lima at age 95. She had spent over 50
years protecting the ancient Nazca Lines using money from the sale
of a book about the drawings.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A24)
1998 Aug 21, It was reported
that a comprehensive treaty between Ecuador and Peru had been
drafted and only required political will to end the 57-year-old
conflict. The military in Ecuador held 23 large companies in areas
such as auto assembly, shrimping, mining, oil and hotels.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A15)
1998 cSep 15, Archeologist
found 6 frozen mummies sacrificed to Inca gods over 500 years ago
near the crater of the 19,100 foot El Misti volcano, 465 miles
southeast of Lima.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.C1)
1998 Sep 30, Some 5,000 workers
marched in Lima to protest a congressional vote that quashed calls
for a referendum over whether Pres. Fujimori could run for
re-election. 300 workers stormed the parade ground of the
presidential palace.
(SFC, 10/1/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, Lawmakers in
Ecuador and Peru agreed to let their border dispute be resolved by
the US, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 23, Peru and Ecuador
settled their border dispute with a line along the Cordellera de
Condor mountain range. Contiguous national parks were to be created
in the disputed area. Tiwintza Hill, allocated to Peru, was to be
granted as private property to Ecuador.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 26, Ecuador and Peru
signed a peace treaty in Brazil and settled their land dispute. The
agreement defined a 49-mile border left undrawn in a 1942 treaty.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1998 Dec 25, In Lima, Peru, a
tear gas bomb caused a stampede in a disco and 9 young people,
13-21, were crushed to death. The bomb was said to have been thrown
by members of a youth gang.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A14)
1998 Jordan received ok from
the American CIA to sell 50,000 surplus AK-47 assault rifles to
Peru. Many of the rifles went to leftist guerrillas in Colombia and
Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru’s spy chief, was implicated.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A12)
1999 Jan 3, Pres. Fujimori
named Joy Way, head of Congress, as prime minister.
(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.A1)
1999 Apr 28, In Peru labor
unions staged a nation-wide strike to protest stagnant living
standards.
(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A1)
1999 May 13, Ecuador and Peru
signed a treaty settling their 50-year border dispute over a 50 mile
stretch in the Amazon jungle.
(WSJ, 5/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 3, In Peru rebels of
the Maoist Shining Path killed 9 people in 2 incidents in the
highlands.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 15, In Peru Maoist
Shining Path rebels killed 8 people in a remote village in the
center of the country.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B2)
1999 Jul 13, Oscar Ramirez
(46), aka Feliciano and head of the Shinning Path, was surrounded by
the military.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.C10)
1999 Jul 14, In Peru army
soldiers captured Oscar Ramirez Durand (46), aka Comrad Feliciano,
head of the Shining Path rebels. He was later sentenced by a
military tribunal to life in prison.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A12)(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)(SFC,
8/31/99, p.A13)
1999 Aug 17, Officials reported
that Carlos Audel Nunez, a Shining Path rebel leader aka "Comrade
Manuel," was killed along with his wife in a clash with military
forces.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Oct 2, Two rebels died
from gunfire with soldiers near Satipo.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.C16)
1999 Oct 3, In Peru 9 soldiers
were killed in a weekend clash with some 60 Maoist guerrillas in the
central jungle.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.C16)
1999 Oct 22, In Peru 28 school
children died near Cuzco after a breakfast of cereal that doctors
suspect was prepared in a vat once used to mix pesticides.
(WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 4, It was reported
that a coca plant fungus was sweeping the area of the Huallaga
Valley, and some observers blamed US anti-drug programs.
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A14)
1999 cNov 12, At least 46
people were buried alive in a mudslide in Tacabamba.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.D8)
1999 Nov 13, Peru and Chile
signed an agreement to end a 120-year territorial dispute. Peru was
granted the exclusive use of a pier in the Chilean port of Arica.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1999 Dec 27, Pres. Fujimori
announced his candidacy for a 3rd term as president.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.B2)
1999 The TV talk show "Laura en
America" ran an episode, Anything for Money, that featured
humiliating acts by low paid poor people before a live audience. The
popular show was hosted by lawyer Laura Bozzo, aka Dr. Laura.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.D5)
1999 American explorer Gene
Savoy discovered a pre-Incan metropolis in Peru, naming it Gran
Saposoa, and concluded it was one of the cities of the Chachapoyas
kingdom.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2000 Jan 10, In Peru a
passenger bus plunged into the Mantaro River 90 miles northeast of
Lima and at least 27 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/11/00, p.A11)
2000 Feb 1, In Peru Shining
Path rebels killed 3 park rangers in a reserve for vicuna.
(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
2000 Feb 6, In Peru riots began
in the Yanamayo prison by Shining Path rebels loyal to Oscar Ramirez
Durand. One guard and one rebel were killed and rebels held a number
of guards as hostages.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 5, In Peru Alejandro
Toledo (54), the “Cholo,” rose dramatically in the polls as
opposition candidate to Pres. Alberto Fujimori, the “Chino.” Toledo
represented the Peru Possible Party.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Apr 9, Pres. Fujimori led
Alejandro Toledo with 48% of the vote and a runoff was planned.
(SFC, 4/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 11, In Peru the vote
count reached 49.79% for Pres. Fujimori and tensions mounted under
suspected irregularities.
(WSJ, 4/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 12, In Peru officials
announced that a runoff election would be held between Pres.
Fujimori and Alejandro Toledo.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A14)
2000 May 22, In Peru election
observers suspended monitoring preparations for elections. Alejandro
Toledo formally pulled out of the race after his demand for an
election postponement was rebuffed.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 28, In Peru Pres.
Fujimori claimed victory with 50.8% of the vote in elections tainted
by alleged fraud and irregularities.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A1)
2000 May 29, The US State Dept.
called the vote in Peru invalid.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 2, In Peru a truck
leaving the Yanacocha gold mine leaked 330 pounds of liquid mercury.
Local residents soon suffered mercury poisoning. A legal suit
against Denver-based Newmont Mining moved forward in 2005.
(SFC, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2000 Jun 29, The OAS said it
would set up a permanent office in Lima to oversee democratic
reforms.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Jul 28, Violent
protests took place as Pres. Fujimori was sworn in for his 3rd
term and 5 people were killed in fires set by vandals.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 14, In Peru a video
was broadcast that showed Vladimiro Montesinos, the country’s chief
spy, bribing congressman Alberto Kouri to support Pres. Fujimori.
The heads of Peru’s 14 military divisions were all from the
military-school class of Montesinos. The annual military budget was
$1.5 billion. There were allegations that Montesinos was involved in
the sale of AK47 assault rifles to rebels in Colombia. In 2009
Fujimori acknowledged that soon after the video emerged he paid
Montesinos $15 million in state money to quit.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A23)(SFC,
9/22/00, p.D3)(AP, 7/13/09)
2000 Sep 16, Pres. Fujimori,
engulfed in a bribery scandal, announced that he would call an
immediate general election and not seek office. He also decided to
deactivate the National Intelligence Service.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A11)
2000 Sep 24, Vladimiro
Montesinos, Peru’s ousted spy chief, fled to Panama.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 28, Pres. Fujimori
flew to Washington to meet with OAS officials as rumors of a coup
swirled.
(WSJ, 9/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 6, In Peru a 5,000
barrel oil spill by an Argentine company threatened the water
resources of some 10,000 inhabitants in the northern jungle.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.A24)
2000 Oct 11, A law was
published that called for the disbanding of the 5,000 person
National Intelligence Service within 15 days.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 23, In Peru Vladimiro
Montesinos, the former intelligence chief, landed in Pisco as police
and protesters clashed in Lima.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 25, Pres. Fujimori
ordered the arrest of Vladimiro Montesinos.
(WSJ, 10/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 29, Lt. Col. Ollanta
Humala led some 51 soldiers in a revolt against pres. Fujimori in
Toquepala. They kidnapped Gen. Oscar Bardales. In 2006 former spy
chief Vladimiro Montesinos called Humala's uprising a "farce, an
operation of deception and manipulation" designed to "facilitate my
exit from the country on the sailboat Karisma."
(SFC, 10/30/00, p.A10)(AP, 5/20/06)
2000 Oct 30, A revolt of
renegade troops drew to a close as most of those involved were
rounded up. Lt. Col Humala and 7 soldiers remained at large.
(SFC, 10/31/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 3, Swiss authorities
froze about $50 million in bank accounts tied to Vladimiro
Montesinos, the ex-spy chief of Peru.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 13, Lawmakers ousted
Martha Hildebrandt, a supporter of Pres. Fujimori, from her post as
president of Congress.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A17)
2000 Nov 16, Valentin Paniagua
was elected Congress president over Ricardo Marcenaro, a Fujimori
loyalist, 64-51.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.D2)
2000 Nov 17, A government
report acknowledged that over 4,000 people disappeared between 1980
and 1996 on suspicion of being leftist guerrillas.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 19, In Tokyo Pres.
Fujimori said he would resign within 48 hours.
(SFC, 11/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Pres. Fujimori
announced his resignation from Tokyo. Acting president Ricardo
Marquez also stepped down.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 21, The legislature
refused to accept the resignation of Pres. Fujimori and ousted him
for moral incapacity.
(SFC, 11/22/00, p.A18)
2000 Nov 22, Valentin Paniagua
was sworn in as the interim president. He selected Javier Perez de
Cuellar, the former UN Sec. General, as prime minister.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A22)
2000 Nov 25, Walter Ledesma,
the new defense minister, announced the immediate dismissal of 12
generals.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.D9)
2000 Dec 16, It was reported
that the source of the Amazon had been located at the Carhuasanta
Creek on the 18,363-foot peak of Nevado Mismi in southern Peru.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.A22)
2000 Dec 28, Congress voted to
overhaul the election system.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.B5)
2000 Mario Vargos Llosa of Peru
authored his historical novel “The Feast of the Goat.” It explored
the cruel regime of General Trujillo in the Dominican Rep.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.44)
2000 Hernando de Soto, Peruvian
economist, authored “The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs
in the West and Fails Everywhere Else,” in which he argued that
because the poor lacked title to their assets, they could not take
advantage of them and were stuck with “dead capital.”
(http://tinyurl.com/3xxehl)(www.cato.org/special/friedman/desoto/index.html)(Econ,
8/26/06, p.62)
2000 Arequipa, “the white
city,” was inscribed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 18, The Supreme Court
lifted arrest warrants against former president Alan Garcia. Garcia
planned to return Jan 27 in a fresh bid for the presidency with the
APRA party.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 13, A Peruvian MiG-29
crashed on a test flight made as part of an inquiry into the 1990s
purchase of Russian jets. Montesinos was suspected to have skimmed
$48 million in the deal.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A1)
2001 Apr 8, Alejandro Toledo
(55) led the presidential elections with 36% of the vote. A May 20
runoff was planned with Alan Garcia who received 25.7%.
(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 20, A Peruvian air
force jet shot down a Cessna 185 carrying US missionaries. Veronica
Bowers (35) and her infant daughter were killed when the plane crash
landed in the Amazon River. The plane was identified by a US
surveillance plane and was believed to be trafficking in narcotics.
(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A12)(SFC, 4/22/01, p.D1)
2001 Jun 3, In Peru Alejandro
Toledo won the presidency over ex-president Alan Garcia.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A1)(AP, 6/3/02)
2001 Jun 20, American Lori
Berenson (31) was convicted by a civilian court of collaborating
with rebels and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She already had
served 5 years. The conviction was upheld Feb 18, 2002.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A10)(SFC,
2/19/02, p.A7)
2001 Jun 23, In southern Peru a
7.9 earthquake killed at 55 people. 12,500 people lost their homes.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 23, Vladimiro
Montesinos, Peru’s former spy chief, was arrested in Caracas,
Venezuela. Pres. Chavez pledged to return him to Peru.
(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/25/01, p.A16)
2001 Jun 25, The June 23 Peru
earthquake was revised to 8.1 magnitude with the death toll at 102.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/27/01, p.D3)
2001 Jun 25, Vladimiro
Montesinos, the former Peruvian spy chief, was flown from Venezuela
to Lima.
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 5, A 5.1 earthquake
struck near Caraveli.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D6)
2001 Jul 28, Pres. Toledo was
inaugurated as the nation’s 1st president of Indian descent. He
promised a government at the service of its people.
(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 7, A gunfight between
police and leftist rebels in the province of Satipo left 12 rebels
and 4 police officers dead.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 14, Pres. Toledo
dismissed military commanders and put in his own men.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, Peru's Congress
voted to lift the constitutional immunity of former President
Alberto Fujimori, so that prosecutors could charge him with crimes
against humanity.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2001 Sep 5, The attorney
general filed homicide charges against former Pres. Fujimori linking
him to 2 massacres by the Colina group in the early 1990s.
(SFC, 9/6/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 13, Peru issued an
int’l. arrest warrant for former Pres. Alberto Fujimori on charges
that he shared responsibility for 25 death-squad slayings in the
early years of his rule.
(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 Oct 31, Congress
unanimously approved embezzlement charges against former Pres.
Fujimori.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C7)
2001 Dec 29, A fireworks shop
exploded and caused a fire in downtown Lima that spread over 4
downtown blocks. At least 290 people were killed.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A12)(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A3)(WSJ,
1/2/02, p.A1)
2001 Peru moved to create
autonomous regional governments and to give them more revenues.
Mayor Wenceslao Alderete of Huayre, hoping to attract tourists,
spent $158,000 to create an erotic sculpture park in the central
plaza. In 2006 the town still lacked paved streets and a sewage
system.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A33)
2002 Jan 17, In Peru some 200
Aguaruna Indians attacked settlers near the Ecuador border and
killed 14 people. Landless peasants had begun settling the area in
1989.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 12, John Hamilton, US
ambassador to Peru, said the US would triple anti-drug funding to
over $150 million.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 19, Peru's justice
minister ruled out a presidential pardon for Lori Berenson after the
Supreme Court confirmed the American woman's 20-year sentence for
aiding leftist rebels.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2002 Mar 20, In Lima a car bomb
explosion outside the US Embassy killed 9 people. Pres. Bush was
scheduled to arrive 3 days later.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 23, Pres. Bush met
with Pres. Toledo in Lima and called for a “war without quarter”
against terrorism and drug trafficking in the region. 18
demonstrators were arrested.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A17)
2002 Apr 17, A huge Inca
cemetery, active from 1480-1533, with some 2,200 mummies was
reported to have been found under Puruchuco-Huaquerones, a Lima
shantytown.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A4)
2002 Apr 19, In Peru a prep
school collapsed in Puno and at least 13 people were killed.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A17)
2002 Jun 4, Fernando Belaunde
(89), former 2 time president (1963-1968, 1980-1985), died.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A23)
2002 Jun 17, In Peru police
deployed armored vehicles and squads armed with automatic rifles in
the capital to prevent the spread of unrest tied to the Friday sale
of state-run companies.
(AP, 6/17/02)
2002 Jun 19, In Peru government
officials said they would suspend the sale of two state-owned
electricity companies following 6 days of violent protests.
(AP, 6/19/02)
2002 Jun 25, Three American
mountain climbers were swept away by an avalanche on Peru's highest
peak and are feared dead.
(AP, 6/25/02)
2002 Jul 3, Peru temporarily
suspended programs to eradicate coca fields and encourage farmers to
grow alternative crops, moves that jeopardize U.S.-backed efforts to
fight the cocaine trade.
(AP, 7/3/02)(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 11, Peru's prime
minister and finance minister said they resigned Thursday as part of
a Cabinet shake-up designed to stem the plummeting popularity of
President Alejandro Toledo's year-old government.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 13, President
Alejandro Toledo declared a state of emergency Saturday in southeast
Peru, where snow and freezing weather has killed at least 18 people
in less than two weeks.
(AP, 7/13/02)
2002 Jul 20, In Lima, Peru, 29
people, a lion and a tiger that were part of the show, died in a
blaze started by bartenders who were doing tricks with fire at
Utopia, an unlicensed night club.
(AP, 7/20/03)
2002 Jul 26, In Peru 2 buses
collided on a slick highway on the coast and another bus slammed
into them, killing at least 12 people and injuring 37.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Aug 12, In Peru Pres.
Alejandro Toledo defended his wife, Eliane Karp, in a nationally
televised address, trying to head off a political storm sparked by
the revelation that Peru's first lady earns $10,000 a month as a
banking consultant.
(AP, 8/13/02)
2002 Aug 15, Peru's first lady,
Eliane Karp, resigned from a $10,000-a-month consulting job with a
Peruvian bank after the revelation of the contract raised suspicions
of influence peddling.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 20, The Swiss
government returned to Peru about $77.5 million linked to former
Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, saying the money came from
corrupt arms deals. The money includes assets of Gen. Nicolas de
Bari Hermoza Rios, Peru's former armed forces chief, who also faces
corruption charges. $33 million linked to Montesinos remained
blocked in Swiss banks.
(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 22, In Peru officials
reported that police had destroyed 57 crude drug laboratories in the
Peruvian jungle and burned 38 tons of coca leaf.
(AP, 8/22/02)
2002 Sep 13, Peru’s Pres.
Alejandro Toledo signed a $50 million loan agreement with World Bank
to provide fresh water and sanitation facilities to more than a
million people in rural areas of Peru.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Oct 31, The US enacted the
Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) as a
replacement for the similar Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). It
granted duty-free access to a wide range of exports from Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_Trade_Promotion_and_Drug_Eradication_Act)
2002 Nov 17, Voters in Peru
backed opposition candidates in first-ever regional elections
intended to shift power from the capital to the provinces.
(AP, 11/18/02)
2002 In Peru Huberth and Gerson
Jara founded their nonfiction magazine Etiqueta Negra.
(SFC, 3/21/06, p.E1)(www.etiquetanegra.com.pe)
2002-2008 Peru’s murder rate tripled over this
period as the country became the world’s biggest cocaine exporter.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.31)
2003 Jan 3, A Peruvian court
struck down anti-terror laws that had been used to quash rebel
movements in the 1990s.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 9, A Peruvian airliner
carrying 46 people, including eight children, disappeared amid
cloud-covered mountains in the Amazon jungle. On Jan 11 rescue
workers found the wreckage of TANS Airlines Flight 222, a Fokker 28
near the jungle town of Chachapoyas. There were no survivors.
(AP, 1/9/03)(AP, 1/11/03)
2003 Jan 14, In northern Peru a
clash between sugar plantation workers and squatters trying to move
onto unplanted land left at least 9 people dead and 14 injured.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 23, In northern Peru
an explosion leveled an ammunition depot at a military base, killing
seven people and injured 95.
(AP, 1/23/03)
2003 Feb 3, The Peace Corps
resumed work in Peru, nearly three decades after a leftist military
government ended the American volunteer program there.
(AP, 2/3/03)
2003 Feb 20, Peru
replaced harsh anti-terrorism laws put in place by former Pres.
Alberto Fujimori, and will review the sentences of at least 1,800
people.
(AP, 2/21/03)
2003 Feb 21, In Peru
police arrested a prominent coca farming leader as protests in rural
Peru against the eradication of coca, the base ingredient in
cocaine, moved into their 4th day.
(AP, 2/21/03)
2003 Mar 8, The
presidents of Peru and Ecuador inaugurated a bridge connecting the
two nations. The $1.8-million bridge spans the Canchis River near
the Peruvian town of Namballe, 500 miles northeast of Lima.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 Mar 8, Interpol
reissued an international arrest warrant charging former Peru
President Alberto Fujimori with murder after receiving additional
information from the government.
(AP, 3/8/03)
2003 Apr 3, Peru’s Congress
voted to create a Senate and return to a bicameral legislature, a
decade after former Pres. Fujimori shut down the two houses in his
so-called self coup.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 May 24, In Peru 19 Latin
American leaders ended the 17th summit of the Group of Rio nations
by promising to curb corruption and poverty, which they said
undermine democratic rule in the region as does terrorism.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 27, In Peru Pres.
Alejandro Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency and authorized
the military to clear strikers from Peru's major highways.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 Jun 3, In Peru thousands
of trade unionists and striking teachers marched through downtown
Lima in defiance of a state of emergency that put the armed forces
in charge of maintaining order.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 4, The Peruvian
government failed to meet wage demands by striking teachers, who
vowed to extend a 24-day walkout that triggered nationwide protests
and prompted President Alejandro Toledo to declare a state of
emergency.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 12, In Peru teachers
went back to work after a monthlong strike that grew to include
protests by farmers and government workers and led President
Alejandro Toledo to impose emergency measures.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 17, Peruvian
investigators dramatically increased their estimate of the death
toll from a two-decade fight against Shining Path rebels, saying
they now believe between 40,000 and 60,000 people perished or
disappeared from 1980-1990s.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 30, Beatriz Merino
(55), Peru's first female PM debuted, pledging to bring discipline
and austerity to the beleaguered government amid hopes her
appointment will help salvage Alejandro Toledo's presidency.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Peru 8 mountain
climbers were missing after an avalanche on Alpamayo mountain. Four
Germans, two Israelis, one Venezuelan and one Peruvian were believed
to have been buried,
(AP, 7/23/03)
2003 Jul 23, In Peru 5 masked
gunmen attacked a Canadian mining camp in the Andes, killing a
Peruvian geologist, wounding another and stealing equipment.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Aug 25, Brazil's Pres.
Lula da Silva and Peru's Pres. Toledo signed a free-trade agreement
between Peru and Mercosur. Peru planned to join as an associate
member.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.25)
2003 Aug 28, Peru’s Truth and
Reconciliation Commission published a report on the violence
unleashed by the Shining Path guerrillas, which included 69,280
deaths from 1980-2000. It identified 150 people it said should be
prosecuted.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.33)
2003 Sep 17, The imprisoned
leader of a Peruvian rebel group said his group has given up armed
conflict and now wants to become a political movement. Victor Polay,
in a published interview, acknowledged that the Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement has been defeated.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2003 Oct 10, In Peru a
passenger bus plunged off a 1,000-foot cliff in the Andes mountains,
killing at least 30 people and wounding 17.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Nov 21, Peru's Pres.
Toledo apologized for the 70,000 deaths from the country's 20-year
battle with the Shining Path insurgency, and promised to punish
officers that a scathing report blamed for many of the worst abuses.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2003 Nov 27, In Peru police
clashed with highland peasants blocking an Andean highway to protest
against mining pollution, leaving 2 demonstrators dead and over 20
people injured.
(AP, 11/28/03)
2003 Nov, In Peru Lee Heifetz,
daughter of Israeli Ambassador Zvi Heifetz, was arrested after she
tried to board a flight to Holland with 10 pounds of cocaine. She
was sentenced to six years and eight months.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2003 Dec 13, Pres. Alejandro
Toledo demanded the resignation of Peru's first-ever female PM and
her 15-minister Cabinet in the wake of rumors about her personal
life. A political rival was spreading rumors that she is a lesbian.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 15, In Peru Pres.
Alejandro Toledo, with his popularity dropping, swore in a new
Cabinet chief and several ministers. Toledo named congressman Carlos
Ferrero to replace Prime Minister Beatriz Merino.
(AP, 12/15/03)
2003 Sally Bowen, a 15-year
Lima resident, and Jane Holligan co-authored "The Imperfect Spy: The
Many Lives of Vladimiro Montesinos," about Peru's now-imprisoned
former intelligence chief. The book cited an imprisoned drug runner,
a former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, as
saying that Fernando Zevallos, founder of Aero Continente airlines,
was a leading Peruvian drug trafficker. In 2004 Zevallos filed a
civil suit against Bowen, Holligan and the publisher.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 Jan 12, The United States
announced plans to return to Peru $20 million stolen by a corrupt
government official and stashed in U.S. bank accounts. In December,
Peru accused Victor Venero Garrido of hiding the money in U.S.
accounts under the guidance of Vladimiro Montesinos.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Jan 30, In Peru VP Raul
Diez Canseco resigned amid allegations that he gave a tax break to
his girlfriend's father, a scandal that had forced him to step down
as trade minister two months earlier.
(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Feb 15, In Peru the
government of embattled President Alejandro Toledo appointed a new
lineup of Cabinet ministers as he tries to survive a deepening
political crisis. It was Toledo's fifth shake-up in 30 months.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2004 Feb 25, In Peru meat and
produce markets in Lima received smaller shipments during the second
day of a strike by cargo truck and passenger bus companies.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Feb 25, The head of Doe
Run Peru, a US-owned smelter in Oroyo, Peru, admitted that lead
poisoning of children by the facility's emissions was a serious
problem, but said his company would not be able to significantly
reduce the contamination until 2011.
(AP, 2/25/04)(www.doerun.com/)
2004 Feb 28, It was reported
that 75% of the traffic cops in Lima, Peru, are female. They were
seen as less corrupt than their male colleagues.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.37)
2004 Feb, Amadeus Corp. of Peru
launched a new soft drink called Vortex, made with coca extract. The
cocaine alkaloid was removed but export was still banned.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.36)
2004 Mar, In Peru Miguel
Toledo, a nephew of Pres. Toledo, and three other men luring a
22-year-old woman to a restaurant to discuss a job offer. Instead,
they allegedly drugged her and took her to a hotel where she was
raped. Miguel Toledo fled his Nov, 2005, rape trial, but was
arrested in 2006 and given a 4-year suspended sentence and a fine of
$2,500.
(AP, 2/20/06)(AP, 2/22/06)
2004 Apr 10, In southern Peru
heavy rains triggered mudslides near the famed Inca citadel of Machu
Picchu, killing at least six people. Five others were missing and
feared dead.
(AP, 4/11/04)
2004 Apr 14, Peru's Congress
approved murder charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori for
allegedly authorizing the death squad killing of a union leader over
a decade ago.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 22, U.S. authorities
prohibited Peru's largest airline, Aero Continente, from flying to
the United States because of safety concerns.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 26, In Peru angry
highland Indians beat their town's mayor to death after he refused
to resign in the face of protests, then the mob attacked the Llave
police station, trapping dozens of officers.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 Apr 27, Peruvian police
retook control of an Andean town, a day after highland Indians beat
to death the mayor, accusing him of corruption.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 Apr 29, In Peru 800 people
in a village near Lake Titicaca took five aldermen hostage Thursday
after their mayor fled in fear of his life.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 May 14, It was reported
that drought in Peru had forced water restrictions in Lima.
(ST, 5/14/04, p.A3)
2004 May 18, Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru opened negotiations in Cartagena for a free trade accord
with the United States as anti-riot police clashed with protesters
who say the pact would lead to job losses in the South American
nations.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 Jun 17, In Peru the
400-year-old Lima Roman Catholic cathedral celebrated its
restoration, a project that began in 1997. A new museum in a
converted sacristy displays a nine-painting series depicting Santa
Rosa de Lima's road to canonization in the 1600s as the first saint
of the New World.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jul 1, In Ayacucho, Peru,
hundreds of striking teachers burned buildings and looted bank
teller machines during clashes with riot police that injured 34
people and led to 15 arrests.
(AP, 7/2/04)
2004 Jul 9, In Peru 2 passenger
buses collided head-on on a coastal highway, killing at least 36
people and injuring two dozen.
(AP, 7/9/04)
2004 Jul 12, Winter storms have
violently struck several South American countries in recent days,
leading to eight weather-related deaths in Argentina and Chile. Some
75,000 farm animals died in Peru and record below freezing
temperatures in southern Brazil.
(AP, 7/12/04)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.C8)
2004 Jul 16, Peru’s National
Agrarian Research Institute launched a new super-cuy (guinea pig),
weighing up to 10 pounds, to help improve the Peruvian diet.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)
2004 Jul 28, Peru’s President
Alejandro Toledo, facing allegations of corruption, invited
government auditors to review all of his bank accounts.
(AP, 7/30/04)
2004 Aug 1, In Peru a bus
plunged off a cliff in the Andes Mountains, killing at least 34
passengers and injuring 21.
(AP, 8/2/04)
2004 Aug 6, U.S. officials
returned $20 million in embezzled Peruvian government funds that had
been deposited in American banks under the direction of fallen spy
chief Vladimiro Montesinos.
(AP, 8/6/04)
2004 Aug 12, In Peru a
double-decker tourist bus missed a bridge and plunged into a dry
riverbed along a highway, killing at least six people and injuring
37.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug, Brazil and Peru
inaugurated the construction of a $7 million bridge between Assis,
Brazil, and Inapari, Peru. It was part of a 2,500 mile Transoceanic
Highway program.
(SFC, 11/5/04, p.W1)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.40)
2004 Oct 6, In Peru villagers
in the country's remote Lake Titicaca region doused Alejandro Noalca
Mamani (54), an accused thief, with gasoline and setting him ablaze.
State-run television station broadcast images the next day.
(AP, 10/8/04)
2004 Oct 19, In Peru police
fired on coca growers protesting government eradication of their
cocaine producing crop, killing two of the farmers after they
attacked a police station near the southern border.
(AP, 10/19/04)
2004 Oct 29, In Peru a
passenger bus plunged more than 650 feet off an isolated mountain
highway in the Andes, killing at least 28 people and injuring 28
others.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Nov 15, In Peru the first
public trial of Shining Path rebel leader Abimael Guzman fell apart
as the 2nd of the 3 presiding judges stepped down citing a conflict
of interest.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Dec 4, Miss Peru, Maria
Julia Mantilla Garcia, an aspiring high school teacher, was crowned
Miss World 2004 In Southern China.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 8, Presidents and
high-ranking officials from 12 South American countries gathered at
the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco, Peru, to create a political and
economic bloc. They hoped to establish a 12-nation South American
Community of Nations.
(AP, 12/8/04)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.36)
2004 Dec 19, A driver lost
control of a bus in a heavy rainstorm in Peru's mountains and the
vehicle plunged 165 feet into a river, killing 49 people on board
and injuring 15.
(AP, 12/21/04)
2004 In 2005 the UN office on
drugs and Crime said Peru’s coca production in 2004 surged 23% to
190 metric tons.
(SSFC, 11/6/05, p.A16)
2004 Peru’s northern Yanacocha
gold mine extracted 3 million ounces. The mine was run by Newmont in
partnership with Peru’s Buenaventura. The mining sparked political
unrest due to ecological and social issues.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.33)
2004 Peru began producing large
amounts of natural gas from its Camisea field in the southern
jungle.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.44)
2005 Jan 1, In southern Peru
Antauro Humala, retired army major, led a nationalist group that
seized a police station ambushed a police vehicle responding to the
scene, killing four officers and two reservists. Antauro Humala was
later sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2011 his sentence was
reduced to 19 years. Antauro’s brother, Ollanta, was elected
president in 2006.
(AP, 1/2/05)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.38)(AP, 9/7/11)
2005 Jan 4, In Peru the leader
of an armed nationalist group that seized a remote police station,
took 10 officers hostage and allegedly killed four others was
detained while most of his 125 followers were rounded up.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Feb 8, A confrontation
between rival gangs in an overcrowded Peruvian prison left five
inmates dead and at least 18 others wounded.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 10, In Peru President
Alejandro Toledo said the government is considering subsidizing some
of this Andean nation's poorest people with direct monthly cash
payments.
(AP, 2/10/05)
2005 Feb 20, In Peru Maoist
Shining Path insurgents ambushed and killed three policemen in
Huallaga Valley, a remote jungle area known for guerrilla activity.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Apr 15, Police in Peru
seized more than a ton of cocaine destined for the US as it was
being packed into a shipment of canned fish at the Colra Fish
Factory in Tacna.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 15, Peruvian
authorities said 3 poachers have been charged with killing 7 people
during a five-year crime spree in which they allegedly slaughtered
2,500 vicuna, a protected Andean animal prized for its wool.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 28, A twin-engine army
plane slammed nose-first into Peru's southern desert coast, killing
all 13 people aboard.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 May 12, Roads in Peru's
Colca Canyon were blocked by townspeople demanding a larger share of
revenue from tourists who come to see condors soar over the
desert-dry moonscape and white-water raft in one of the world's
deepest valleys.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 21, In central Peru a
passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river on, killing at least
35 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 Jun 1, Peruvian doctors
separated the fused legs of Milagros Cerron, a 13-month-old baby
girl known as Peru's "mermaid."
(AP, 6/1/06)
2005 Jun 3, A Peruvian judge
ordered the arrest of 29 military officials for their alleged
involvement in the decades-old massacre of dozens of campesinos in
an Andean village.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 14, A 7.9 earthquake
rattled cities in Bolivia and Peru and heavily damaged mountain
villages in northern Chile, killing at least 11 people including a
family of 6.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 14, A UN report showed
South America's cocaine output rose by 2 percent last year, bucking
a five year downward trend as increases in Peru and Bolivia outpaced
Colombia's clampdown on coca cultivation.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jul 5, A Peruvian judge
ordered the arrest of 118 current and retired military officials for
their alleged involvement in the May 14, 1988, massacre of peasants
in an Andean village and subsequent violations in the area.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 13, Thousands of
Peruvians protested against a proposed US-trade pact that a UN
investigator warned would put medicines out of reach of millions of
poor people.
(Reuters, 7/13/05)
2005 Aug 11, Peru's PM Carlos
Ferrero quit unexpectedly in an apparent protest against President
Alejandro Toledo's appointment of an unpopular political ally as
foreign minister.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 13, Fernando Olivera,
Peru's new foreign minister, said he was resigning his post, just
two days after the uproar from his appointment sparked a major
shake-up of President Alejandro Toledo's Cabinet.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 16, Peru’s President
Alejandro Toledo swore in a new Cabinet with Pedro Pablo Kuczynski,
the former finance minister, as prime minister and cabinet chief.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 18, In Peru US Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to promote stability in Latin
America, met with Pres. Alejandro Toledo.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 23, TANS Peru Flight
204, a Boeing 737-200 with 100 people on board, split in two after
an emergency landing during a fierce storm, killing at least 41
people. The pilot tried to land in a marsh to soften the impact but
the landing split the aircraft in two. The plane was enroute from
Lima to Pucallpa and landed 20 miles from Pucallpa.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Sep 1, In Peru Wilbert
Elqui Meza was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for a
2002 car bombing that killed 10 people outside the U.S. Embassy.
Meza was the only one of eight defendants convicted of carrying out
the attack. 2 women received 20-year sentences and a third women was
handed a 25-year sentence for belonging to the Shining Path,
Maoist-oriented rebel group. Four others were acquitted of all
charges.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 9, The presidents of
Bolivia, Brazil and Peru inaugurated a $810 million highway project
to connect Brazil's Atlantic coast to Peru's Pacific ports before
the end of the decade.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 21, Pilots of a
chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans faked the need for an
emergency landing in Peru so passengers could watch their nation's
team play a key match.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 22, Peru's Congress
passed legislation that would require public institutions to
consider open-source software as an alternative to proprietary
systems such as Windows.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 25, A 7.0 earthquake
hit northern Peru, near Moyobamba, causing power outages and cutting
phone service throughout much of the region. 4 people were reported
killed in Lamas.
(AP, 9/26/05)(SFC, 9/26/05, A3)
2005 Sep 26, In Peru Shining
Path founder Abimael Guzman, whose messianic communist vision
inspired a rebellion that left almost 70,000 people dead, went on
trial again with his attorney predicting he'll receive the same life
sentence that was thrown out two years ago.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 27, At least 18 people
were killed and 40 others injured when two passenger buses crashed
head on along Peru's coastal Panamerican highway.
(AP, 9/27/05)
2005 Sep 30, South American
presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free
trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents
of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 4, In Peru Maritza
Garrido Lecca, a former ballet teacher who used her dance studio to
hide Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, was sentenced to 20 years
in prison after a three-month civilian retrial. Nicholas Shakespeare
used the story as inspiration for his novel "The Dancer Upstairs"
(1995), which John Malkovich turned into a 2002 movie of the same
name, starring Javier Bardem.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Nov 6 Former Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori was arrested, hours after he defied an
international arrest warrant and flew from Japan to Chile. Shortly
after Fujimori's presence in Chile was confirmed, the Peruvian
government asked Santiago to arrest him while a request for his
extradition was filed.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 18, Peru’s government
renewed a state of emergency in several isolated jungle and highland
provinces amid reports of leftist rebel activity.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 19, In Peru Fernando
Zevallos, the founder of an airline that was Peru's largest until he
landed on Washington's list of "drug kingpins," was arrested on
cocaine trafficking and homicide charges.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 23, In Peru officials
said police will begin patrolling Peru's famed Inca Trail following
the recent armed robbery of 13 tourists.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 24, Peruvian lawmakers
voted to trim a hefty year-end bonus, bowing to public outrage in
one of Latin America's poorest countries.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 24, In Peru 16 people
were killed when a passenger bus plunged into a river.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Dec 7, Peru and the US
completed negotiations on a free-trade agreement.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 19, Fernando Zevallos,
an airline founder who was labeled Peru's drug kingpin by the Bush
administration, was convicted of money laundering and cocaine
trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The court also
ordered him to pay a fine of $29 million for conspiring with Peru's
Nortenos drug gang to ship 3.3 tons of cocaine to Mexico.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 20, In Peru some 20
suspected Shining Path rebels killed 8 police officers in an ambush
near the town of Aucayacu in Leoncio Prado province.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 21, Peru's president
declared a state of emergency in six jungle provinces and promised
to stamp out the nation's remaining Shining Path guerrillas after
suspected rebels killed eight police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 29, Peru's Congress
ratified a law to create a Supreme Court judicial panel dominated by
retired armed forces generals to oversee the military's justice
system, a move human rights advocates say will hurt efforts to
prosecute military human rights abuses.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 Dec 29, Peruvian human
rights groups detailed at least 46 cases this year of threats and
intimidation targeting investigators and witnesses pursuing human
rights abuses allegedly committed by the military during the height
of the Shining Path insurgency.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Johan Reinhard authored
“The Ice Maiden,” an account of his discoveries of ritual Inca sites
in the mountains of Peru.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.D10)
2006 Jan 3, Peru formally asked
Chile to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori so he
can be tried on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 5, Peru recalled its
ambassador from Venezuela, accusing President Hugo Chavez of
meddling in Peru's upcoming presidential race.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 10, Peru's National
Election Board formally rejected a bid by jailed former President
Alberto Fujimori to run in April's presidential race, citing a
congressional ban on his holding public office.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 27, A Panamanian ship
collided with two other vessels near the Peruvian port of Callao,
splitting in two and leaving one sailor missing.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Peru Arndt
Hubert Kupper (36) and Eva Noruzka la Torre (22), a German man and
his Peruvian wife, were arrested for trafficking Peruvian babies to
adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 19, In Peru Hector
Aponte, a Shining Path guerrilla commander believed responsible for
an ambush that killed eight policemen in December, was killed in a
shootout with authorities in the Huallaga Valley. Aponte was a top
commander under Comrade Artemio, one of the last original Shining
Path leaders still at large.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Miguel Toledo
(36), a nephew of President Alejandro Toledo, was given a four-year
suspended sentence on charges he drugged and raped a 22-year-old
woman in 2004.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 28, In Peru 2 buses
crashed head-on in the southern Andes, killing 12 people, including
one American tourist. Nearly 50 people were injured.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 21, In Peru Victor
Polay (54), the leader of the Tupac Amaru guerrilla group, was
sentenced to 32 years in prison in a civilian retrial. The group
grabbed the world's attention nearly 10 years ago with a takeover of
the Japanese ambassador's residence.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Apr 9, Peruvians faced a
close, three-way presidential contest that put their Andean nation
on a leftist track akin to Venezuela and Bolivia. Ollanta Humala
(43), a former army officer, won with only 31% of the vote.
(AP, 4/9/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.42)
2006 Apr 11, In Peru with 80%
of the votes counted Ollanta Humala led with 30.3%. Former president
Alan Garcia (56) held a narrow lead over pro-business former
Congresswoman Lourdes Flores (46) in the race to face Ollanta Humala
(43) in a presidential runoff vote.
(AP, 4/11/06)(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 17, In central Peru a
passenger bus tumbled off a mountain road and came to rest in a
gorge, killing at least 25 people on board in Jaucan district.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 29, Peru recalled its
ambassador from Venezuela over what it called President Hugo
Chavez's "persistent and flagrant interference" in its upcoming
presidential elections.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr, Peru’s Legislature
approved a trade pact with the US. The US Congress and Senate
approved the free trade agreement in late 2007.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A6)
2006 May 3, Peru confirmed that
ex-President Garcia placed 2nd in the April 9 voting and will face
nationalist Ollanta Humala in a June 4 runoff.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A1)
2006 May 4, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said he was withdrawing his ambassador from
Peru as a matter of principle after Peru called home its ambassador.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 12, Vladimiro
Montesinos, Peru's jailed ex-intelligence chief, was sentenced to 10
more years in prison and fined $15.2 million after pleading guilty
to charges of illicit enrichment.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 Jun 4, Peruvians faced a
choice in runoff presidential elections between former president
Alan Garcia (57), and Ollanta Humala (43), a fiery political
newcomer pledging to punish a corrupt political establishment.
Garcia beat Humala, a nationalist backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez,
to regain control of the country 16 years after his first
presidential term ended in economic ruin and rebel violence.
Garcia’s American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party held
only 36 of 120 seats in Congress.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)
2006 Jun 14, Four Andean
nations (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) agreed to chart new
trade plans with the United States without Venezuela.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 16, Peru's
President-elect Alan Garcia said that one of his first acts when he
takes office will be cutting public salaries, including his own, and
canceling plans to open an embassy in Turkey.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2006 Jun 28, Peru’s Congress
overwhelmingly voted to ratify a free trade pact with the US,
rejecting claims the treaty will hurt Peru's farmers by flooding the
Andean nation with subsidized cotton, rice, corn and potatoes.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jul 2, A Peruvian rescue
team found the bodies of 3 American mountaineers killed during an
icy climb high in the Andes. They located Kristen Yoder (21), her
brother Dustin Yoder (23) and Brennan Larson (24) in a 100-foot-deep
crevasse on the Artesonraju peak.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 27, President-elect
Alan Garcia made good on a pledge to draw talent from across the
political spectrum in his 16-member Cabinet by appointing six women,
including Peru's first female justice and interior ministers.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 28, Alan Garcia
returned to the presidency of Peru, pledging to battle poverty 16
years after ending his first term.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 31, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia cut government salaries, including his own, three days
after announcing a long list of austerity measures in his inaugural
address.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Aug 25, Peru's jailed
ex-intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos was sentenced to six
years in prison for using government money to fund former President
Alberto Fujimori's 2000 re-election campaign. The sentence will be
served concurrently with Montesinos' 15-year prison sentence for
various corruption convictions.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Sep 21, Vladimiro
Montesinos (61), Peru's former spymaster, was sentenced to 20 years
in prison for engineering a deal that sent 10,000 assault rifles to
Colombian guerrillas.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Oct 13, In Peru Shining
Path founder Abimael Guzman, whose messianic communist vision
inspired a 12-year rebellion that cost nearly 70,000 lives, was
found guilty of aggravated terrorism and sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Peru former
President Valentin Paniagua (69) died. The unassuming former law
professor shepherded Peru back to democracy as interim president
following the 2000 collapse of Alberto Fujimori's autocratic regime.
Paniagua governed Peru from November 2000 to July 2001.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 26, In Peru's southern
Andes at least 20 people were killed and 12 others were injured when
a passenger bus crashed down an embankment.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Nov 19, Lima's mayor Luis
Castaneda was returned to office in nationwide regional elections
expected to give major gains to independents as Peruvians shunned
traditional political parties.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Peru a bus
speeding through the fog on a twisting mountain road in the Andes
fell 1,320 feet into a ravine, killing 45 people.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 13, In Peru a
passenger bus slammed into an oncoming truck on mountain curve and
plunged into a river in Amazonas state, killing at least 21 people
and injuring 30.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 16, In Peru 5 police
officers and two employees of the state-run coca company were shot
to death in a southern jungle state.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 23, A bus plunged into
a river in Peru's central mountains, killing at least nine people
and leaving four missing.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Peru’s population numbered
about 27 million. It was about 80 percent Indian or mestizo.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2007 Feb 16, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia said that he is selling the presidential airplane in an
effort to curb "frivolous" expenses in his administration.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 27, Peru's Congress
passed a new law stiffening penalties for attacks on tourists,
making the maximum sentence for murdering or severely injuring a
tourist life in prison.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Feb 28, An air force
helicopter crashed in Peru's highlands, killing 3 military personnel
and injuring an army general who commanded a military base in the
area.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 1, In Peru church
bells rang and a sea of confetti fluttered through Lima's historical
central plaza at the stroke of noon, alerting Peruvians to
synchronize their watches at the start of a nationwide campaign to
promote punctuality.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 20, In Peru 3
suspected leftist rebels were shot to death in a clash with troops
in the highland jungle.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Apr 13, Former President
Alejandro Toledo returned to Peru to visit his ailing sister and
face accusations that he forged signatures nearly a decade ago to
get his party on the 2000 presidential ballot.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 22, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were announced on Earth Day. The winners
included Julio Cusurichi of Peru for his work to fight illegal
logging; Willie Corduff of Ireland for his work to halt an energy
project that disregarded local and environmental concerns; Sophia
Rabliauskas of Canada for her work to help protect the boreal forest
in Manitoba; Orri Vigfussen of Iceland for his work on the North
Atlantic Salmon Fund; Ts. Munkhbayar for his work against
unregulated mining in Mongolia; and Hammerskjoeld Simwinga for his
work in organizing microloan programs in Zambia.
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.E1)
2007 Apr 26, Peru’s Congress
granted President Garcia the power to rule by decree for 60 days on
matters related to drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime,
strengthening his hand in the battle against cocaine production and
smuggling. A US report claimed that the Shining Path may now have
hundreds of armed combatants and that it is entwined with drug
trafficking.
(AP, 4/27/07)(Econ, 5/5/07, p.50)
2007 May 18, In southern Peru a
backpack containing dynamite and nails exploded during a celebration
in a market in Juliaca, killing six people and wounding 48.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 24, A Peruvian
government flight serving as a link between isolated jungle
communities disappeared in the country's northeastern rain forest
with 20 people on board. 7 survivors were rescued the next day.
(AP, 5/25/07)(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Chile former
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was put back under house arrest,
a day after a Chilean prosecutor recommended his extradition to face
charges of human rights abuses and corruption in his home country.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 21, Peru's Congress
voted overwhelmingly to lower the age to 14 for participating in
consensual sex, a move some activists said could expose children to
sexual abuse.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Peru a passenger
bus crashed into an oncoming truck killing 24 people.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 5, Peruvian public
school teachers walked off the job to protest an education reform
proposal that would require them to pass periodic competency exams.
Education Minister Jose Antonio Chang called the effort a failure,
saying only 15% of Peru's approximately 350,000 teachers failed to
show up for work in the country.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 6, A Peruvian consumer
protection agency closed a popular restaurant and imposed a stiff
fine for repeatedly turning away dark-skinned people. The upscale
suburb of Miraflores complied with the agency's request to close
Cafe del Mar for 60 days. The restaurant also was fined $76,000 for
its "discriminatory" entrance policy.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll
picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal,
Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ
Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders
of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in
1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 19, Peru's public
school teachers ended a 15-day strike against a new law requiring
them to take competency tests after government officials agreed to
talks on their demand for better training.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Aug 15, A magnitude-8.0
trembler rocked Peru's coast, toppling buildings leaving some 610
people dead and 36,000 homes damaged. State doctors called off a
national strike to handle the emergency. Two prisons collapsed and
600 prisoners escaped. About a third gave themselves up over the
next week. Tremors destroyed 80% of Pisco, where 148 people died
when the city cathedral collapsed.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.35)(SSFC, 4/6/08,
p.A14)(Econ, 8/16/08, p.37)
2007 Aug 16, The death toll
from Peru’s earthquake rose to at least 337.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 17, In Peru six strong
aftershocks struck as the death toll from the Aug 15 8.0
earthquake passed 500.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Peru President
Alan Garcia called for the orderly distribution of emergency
supplies as desperate victims of a magnitude-8 earthquake on the
southern coast looted markets and blocked arriving aid trucks. The
death toll climbed to 540.
(AP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug, In Peru the body of
Claudia Gomez was found in a large suitcase that washed up on a
Pacific Ocean beach. William Trickett Smith II of Pennsylvania was
extradited to Peru in 2010 to face charges that he killed his
Peruvian wife, Claudia Gomez in early July at a hotel in Lima.
Trickett entered a guilty plea on May 19, 2011. On May 23 he was
sentenced to 35-years in prison and ordered to pay $21,000 in
restitution to the family of Claudia Gomez.
(AP, 5/20/11)(http://tinyurl.com/4xcl9xo)(AP,
5/23/11)
2007 Sep 11, Douglas Eugene
"Gene" Savoy, explorer, died at age 80 in Reno, Nev. He discovered
more than 40 lost cities in Peru and led long-distance sailing
adventures to learn more about ancient cultures. Savoy wrote dozens
of books, including "Antisuyo: The Search for the Lost Cities of the
Amazon" (1970) about his early discoveries in Peru, and "On the
Trail of the Feathered Serpent" (1974) about some of his sea
journeys.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 15, A meteorite made a
fiery crash to Earth in southern Peru and villagers were soon struck
by a mysterious illness.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Peru an
unofficial referendum was held in three districts affected by plans
for developing a copper mine at Rio Blanco. Some 95% of the votes
were against the 1.4 billion project planned by China’s Zijin
Consortium, which had recently acquired the concession.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.51)
2007 Sep 21, Chile's Supreme
Court ruled that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori must be
extradited to face human rights and corruption charges in Peru.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, Former Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori was flown to his home country in police
custody, one day after the Chilean Supreme Court authorized his
extradition on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep, In Peru government
ecologists spotted 21 members of a hitherto uncontacted tribe on the
banks of the Rio de las Piedras. It was estimated that there are
still 15 such groups.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.40)
2007 Oct 4, Dutch authorities
said their customs officers had found 100 dead beetles stuffed with
cocaine whilst examining a parcel from Peru.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Dec 10, Peru’s former
President Alberto Fujimori faced trial on charges of using a death
squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators, a case stirring
mixed emotions in a country where many admire him for defeating a
bloody insurgency.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Peru former
President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of abuse of authority and
sentenced to six years in prison at the end of the first in a series
of trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2008 Feb 29, Peruvian officials
arrested seven members from the Coordinadora Continental
Bolivariana, a Venezuela-based leftist movement, including the
group's alleged leader, Roque Gonzalez, who spent eight years in
prison for kidnapping a Bolivian politician. Two more alleged
members were arrested on March 17 trying to carry in $65,000 from
Ecuador, money Peruvian authorities suspect is Venezuelan.
Coordinadora founder Fernando Rivero told The Associated Press in
Venezuela that the group is entirely autonomous.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 11, In Peru a
helicopter ferrying passengers from the La Granja copper mine owned
by the Rio Tinto Group crashed in the Andes with 10 people aboard.
The wreckage was found the next day.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Apr 8, A Peruvian court
convicted a former general and three members of a military death
squad of kidnapping and murder in a ruling that prosecutors say
could set a precedent in the trial of former President Alberto
Fujimori. Judges found them guilty of participating in the 1992
kidnapping and murder of nine students and a professor from La
Cantuta University who were suspected of being rebel collaborators.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Peru 5 French
tourists visiting the Nazca lines were killed when their small plane
crashed after becoming tangled in power lines.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 May 15, European and Latin
American leaders gathered in Peru for their fifth summit in a decade
with plans to tackle climate change, high food prices and poverty.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 16, In Peru European
and Latin American leaders concluded their 5th summit in a decade
and pledged to fight poverty, global warming and high food prices,
presenting a show of unity amid a festering conflict between two
South American nations.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Peru tens of
thousands of union workers took to the streets across the country to
protest rising food and fuel prices they blame on the free market
policies of President Alan Garcia.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Peru a new law
went into effect allowing couples who agree upon alimony, child
custody and division of assets to seek divorce from a qualified
notary or municipality.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Peruvians flooded
the streets to protest the slow pace of reconstruction a year after
a magnitude-8.0 earthquake left tens of thousands homeless.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 18, Peru's government
declared a state of emergency in remote jungle regions where Indian
groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to
protest a law that makes it easier to sell their lands.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 22, Peru’s congress
voted to repeal two laws facilitating the sale of Indian lands that
had generated protests by dozens of tribes in the Amazon rain
forest. The laws had been passed by presidential decree in May to
promote private investment.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.37)
2008 Sep 18, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia led a deputation of half his cabinet and over 200 business
leaders to see Brazil’s Pres. da Silva.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.44)
2008 Oct 9, In Peru a bomb
killed 13 soldiers and 2 civilians in Huancavelica, east of Lima, in
an apparent response to an army operation to shut down Shining Path
camps.
(AP, 10/10/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
2008 Oct 10, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet without
naming replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia announced that he has appointed Yehude Simon (61), a
leftist governor, to become the chief Cabinet minister, a day after
the minister's predecessor resigned along with 16 colleagues amid a
brewing oil-kickbacks scandal.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 20, US Ambassador
Michael McKinley and Peru's foreign minister signed an accord
forgiving US$25 million of Peru's foreign debt and directing the
money to a tropical forest conservation program.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 28, In Peru police and
protesters clashed violently at a blockaded bridge in the province
of Moquegua leaving 71 injured.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Peru a
1,000-strong mob set fire to the station and took 25 officers
captive in San Martin province. They reportedly were angered when
police threw tear gas near a school and several children were
affected.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 1, Yma Sumac (b.1922),
Peruvian-born singer known as the “Nightingale of the Andes,” died
in LA. Her voice was said to range over 4½ octaves. Her first
album, “Voice of the Xtabay” (1950) soared to the top of the LP
charts.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 16, In Peru Edwin
Valladolid was arrested in Lima carrying a box of 36 grenades ahead
of the arrival next week of 18 world leaders for a Pacific Rim
economic summit.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, China and Peru
signed a free trade agreement.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.42)
2008 Nov 22, In Peru the 21
leaders at the APEC conference endorsed a sweeping action plan that
had been approved a week ago at the G20 emergency meeting in
Washington.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, President George
W. Bush, wrapping up his final summit with world leaders, offered a
message of hope that despite the worst economic crisis in decades,
the global economy will emerge in better shape. He was expected to
tout the benefits of free trade during a meeting with his host,
Peru's President Alan Garcia, before attending the final sessions of
the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) as he
wrapped up three days of discussions. Summit leaders predicted a
worldwide recovery in 18 months.
(AP, 11/23/08)(SFC, 11/24/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 26, In Peru suspected
rebels armed with machine guns and grenades ambushed a police patrol
in the central jungle, killing four officers and wounding five
others.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Dec 4, Drug agents in Peru
seized 3 tons of cocaine mixed into a shipment of guano bound for
Spain. Four Peruvians and a Colombian were arrested.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 25, In Peru five
nightclubbers are dead after a tear gas grenade was detonated in the
middle of a crowded disco in Juliaca.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 In Peru city officials of
Cerro de Pasco gave mine owner, Peru-based Volcan Compania Minera
S.A., permission to take another 28 acres (11.33 hectares) of the
town, including the center square and its colonial church, rebuilt
in 1748 after an earthquake. If not, the company threatened to close
the pit-mine, putting 4,000 jobs at risk. About the same time,
Peru's congress passed a bill to condemn and relocate Cerro de
Pasco, based on US Centers for Disease Control studies that found
soil, homes and water saturated with toxic levels of lead.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2009 Jan 10, In northern Peru a
bus ran off a slick mountain road into a ravine, killing at least 33
people.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 27, A Peruvian court
freed two men accused of belonging to a military death squad linked
to several massacres in the early 1990s, after the suspects
completed six years in prison without a conviction. Douglas Arteaga
Pascual and Angel Pino Diaz were charged in 2001 and accused of
belonging to a death squad known as the "Colina group." A verdict
was expected this year.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Feb 14, The Peruvian film
“La Teta Asustada” (The Milk of Sorrow), directed by Claudia Llosa,
won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milk_of_Sorrow)(Econ, 3/14/09,
p.42)
2009 Feb 17, In Portugal
Conchita Cintron (b.1922), Peruvian-born matador, died. She faced
her first bull at age 13 and made her premier at the main arena in
Lima in 1937. She reportedly killed over 750 bulls during her career
in Europe.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.B8)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.93)
2009 Feb 27, Researchers in
Peru said an unusually intact fossilized skull of a pelagornithid, a
giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago,
had been found in the in the Pisco Formation, a coastal rock bed
south of the capital, Lima, known for yielding fossils of whales,
dolphins, turtles and other marine life dating as far back as 14
million years.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Peru's southern
province of Puno 10 people were killed dead and 16 left missing at a
remote mining camp buried by a mudslide.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 31, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia reversed course and accepted a donation from Germany for
a museum honoring those killed in Peru's 20-year armed conflict with
Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 7, Former Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori (70) was found guilty of murder and
kidnapping for death squad activities during his 10-year rule during
the 1990s. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His daughter,
Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori (33), said people's outrage over the
"vengeful" verdict will propel her to Peru's presidency in 2011.
Then she'll pardon him.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 9, In Peru suspected
guerrillas killed 13 Peruvian soldiers in ambushes on two patrols in
the Apurimac-Ene river valley, a jungle region known for coca
production and lingering rebel activity. The body of a 14th soldier
was recovered on April 12.
(AP, 4/11/09)(SFC, 4/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 13, In Peru a foot
bridge in the highlands collapsed, sending dozens of children and
teachers from a nearby school plunging more than 230 feet (70
meters) into a ravine and killing 2 teachers and six schoolchildren.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 27, Peru's government
said that it has granted political asylum to Manuel Rosales, a
Venezuelan opposition leader, who faced corruption allegations in
his homeland but claimed to be persecuted by leftist President Hugo
Chavez..
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 28, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia and Brazil’s Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an
agreement for six hydroelectricity schemes in Peru. The Inambari dam
would be the first to be built, and most of its power would be
exported to Brazil.
(www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11256.aspx)(Econ,
11/21/09, p.42)
2009 Apr 28, Venezuela recalled
its ambassador to protest Peru's decision to grant political asylum
to a prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez, calling it a
mockery of international law and escalating a diplomatic dispute.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Peru Ashaninka
and Yines Indians blocked an airport in the central jungle town of
Atalaya as well as two stations on a northern oil pipeline to
protest laws that they say threaten their ancestral land and
resources. Some 15,000 Indians have been protesting since April 9
and planned to start taking over oil and gas rigs. They said laws
passed in December opened the door to privatization of water
resources and jungle land which they used.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 9, It was reported
that Peru’s police over the last two months have seized some $40
million in near perfect replicas of American dollar bills in $20,
$50 and $100 denominations. Most of the fake bills were sent to
Ecuador and Panama, which used the greenback as their national
currency.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.40)
2009 May 11, Bolivia demanded
that Peru hand over three former government ministers charged with
genocide in the 2003 killing of dozens of protesters. President Evo
Morales called asylum an "open provocation of the Bolivian people."
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 12, Peruvian Foreign
Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said former Bolivian ministers
Mirtha Quevedo and Javier Torres Goitia requested and have received
refugee status, a legal measure that, unlike asylum, does not denote
political persecution. They are among the former ministers of former
Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada, charged with genocide for
sending soldiers who killed 63 people in 2003 while quelling
anti-government protests in the city of El Alto.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In Peru a new law
went into effect that says officers will be fired for taking bribes
and abusing detainees. It also said police officers who "damage the
image" of law enforcement by engaging in homosexual behavior can
lose their jobs.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Peru a national
Indian representative said Amazon Indians who have been blocking
roads, waterways and a state oil pipeline since April are declaring
an "insurgency" against Peru's government for refusing to repeal
laws that the protesters say make it easier for foreign companies to
take their lands. The next day they said they would withdraw the
call for an insurgency against the government, but vowed to press
ahead with their protests.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 Jun 5, Indians in Peru's
Amazon, protesting government moves to develop oil, gas and other
resources on their lands, battled police near Bagua in an area
called Curva del Diablo, or "Devil's Curve." Authorities reported
the death of 11 police and 25 protesters. The official death toll
after 2 days of violence was later reported at 33, including 23
police officers. Santiago Manuin (53), Awajun Indian leader, was
among 48 wounded protesters.
(AP, 6/5/09)(Econ, 7/18/09, p.36)(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jun 6, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia labored to contain the country’s worst political
violence in years, as nine more police officers were killed in a
bloody standoff with Amazon Indians fighting his efforts to exploit
oil, gas and other resources on their native lands. The new deaths
brought to 22 the number of police killed, seven with spears, since
security forces on June 5 moved to break up a roadblock manned by
5,000 protesters. A judge ordered the arrest of the Indian leader,
Alberto Pizango, on sedition and rebellion charges.
(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Peru indigenous
leader Alberto Pizango sought refuge at Nicaragua's embassy in Lima.
Nicaragua granted Pizango political asylum but he remained at the
embassy, awaiting Peru's agreement to allow him safe passage out of
the country.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 10, Peru's Congress
indefinitely suspended two key legislative decrees that spurred the
Amazon Indian protests that erupted in bloodshed during a government
crackdown last week. Indigenous groups said the decrees make it
easier for foreign companies to exploit their lands for oil, gas and
logging.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 11, In Peru riot
police used tear gas to turn student protesters away from the
Congress as thousands marched to back Amazon Indians resisting oil
and natural gas exploration on their land.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 15, Peru's government
promised Amazon Indians to ask Congress to revoke decrees that
native groups say would make it easier to exploit their lands for
oil, gas and other development.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 18, In Peru a top
Indian leader called for an end to protests that left dozens dead in
the Amazon region after Congress revoked two decrees that indigenous
groups said would spur oil and gas exploitation and other
development on their ancestral lands.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 19, The UN said
Colombia's coca crop shrank by nearly a fifth last year while
cultivation of the bush that is the basis of cocaine rose for a
third straight year in Peru and Bolivia, the world's two other
coca-producing nations.
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 2, In Peru two buses
crashed head-on on a mountain road near Lake Titicaca, killing at
least 23 people and injuring 50 more.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 11, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia shuffled his Cabinet following months of protests,
replacing seven of 16 ministers and naming a new chief, the third
person to hold the post in nine months.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 20, Peru’s former
President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of embezzlement and
sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison after he admitted illegally
paying his spy chief $15 million in government funds.
(AP, 7/21/09)
2009 Aug 2, In Peru attackers
believed to be Shining Path rebels killed three police officers and
two women in an assault on a remote police post in San Jose de Secce
in Ayacucho province, a coca-growing region.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 7, A Peruvian
government prosecutor presented homicide charges against two police
generals and 15 other officers for a June government crackdown at an
Amazon highway blockade manned by Indians protesting development on
their ancestral lands. The criminal charges, which must be ratified
by a judge, were the first to implicate police in violence that left
at least 33 dead, including 23 police.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 15, In Peru farmers
freed 13 police officers and four civilians seized at a
hydroelectric dam in the Andean region after local officials agreed
to provide them with fertilizer.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 16, It was reported
that Peru has become the world’s largest “factory” of counterfeit US
dollars. Police were said to seize some $10 million in false dollars
each month in Lima alone. The Peruvian dollars were mostly found in
such countries as Italy, France, Germany and Ecuador. Gunmen robbed
12 foreigners on an ecological tourism trip to the Manu nature
reserve in the Tres Cruces area of the Cusco region.
(SSFC, 8/16/09, p.A4)(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 24, It was reported
that Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden
in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the
drug surgically implanted inside the birds.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Peru drug-funded
Shining Path rebels shot down an air force helicopter in the
coca-growing highlands of Junin province, killing three troops and
wounding five. The military said three rebels were arrested and
another four killed.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 11, In Peru lawyer
Alfredo Crespo announced the publication of a book of manuscripts
written in prison by Shining Path rebel leader Abimael Guzman. On
Sep 13 the justice minister asked a public prosecutor to file
"apology for terrorism" charges against Crespo.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Peru former
President Alberto Fujimori, who already faces the prospect of
spending the rest of his life in prison, pleaded guilty to
authorizing illegal wiretaps and bribes of politicians, journalists
and businessmen.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Peru a court
imposed a six-year prison sentence on disgraced ex-President Alberto
Fujimori, who already faced the prospect of spending the rest of his
life in a cell after three previous convictions. He also was fined
$9 million for authorizing wiretaps and bribes.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Nov 5, Peru’s defense
minister said Shining Path rebels attacked a military outpost in the
country's coca-producing highlands, killing one soldier and wounding
three.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 12, Peruvian media
reported that air force officer Victor Ariza (45) was arrested last
month for allegedly spying for Chile. Peruvian President Alan Garcia
soon accused Chile of assaulting Peru's sovereignty, throwing his
weight behind allegations that Chile paid a Peruvian military
officer to spy. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez denied
the accusation.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 19, Peruvian police
said a gang in the Peruvian jungle has been killing people and
draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in
cosmetics, although medical experts say they doubt a major market
for fat exists.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 28, The government of
Peru apologized to its Afro-Peruvian population for the first time
for centuries of abuse, exclusion and discrimination.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 1, Peru's police chief
dismissed the head of his criminal investigations unit amid
suggestions that officers may have invented a story about a
murderous gang of human fat thieves, perhaps to distract from
allegations of police killings.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 16, In Peru a
storm-loosened wave of mud and rocks rolled through the streets of
Ayacucho in the Peruvian Andes, killing at least 9 people while
destroying homes and cars.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 23, In northern Peru a
60-year-old woman was trampled to death by a surging crowd at a
Christmas giveaway in Chimbote.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 24, In Peru a bus
carrying mostly Quechua farmers and merchants home for Christmas
plunged 250 feet (80 meters) into a ravine in the southern Andes,
killing 42 people and injuring at least eight.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2010 Jan 1, In Peru a riot by
about 500 inmates erupted New Year’s Eve at a northern prison and
left two inmates dead. 6 guards were held hostage until negotiations
got the prisoners to end their protest.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Peru some 3,900
tourists were cut off in villages near Machu Picchu in the Andes
mountains, when mudslides blocked the railway to the city of Cuzco,
which is the only way in or out of the area. Torrential rain, due to
El Nino, in the Cusco area left at least 26 people dead and
destroyed the homes and livelihood of some 20,000.
(AP, 1/27/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 26, In Peru an
Argentine identified as Lucia Ramallo (23) and a Peruvian guide,
Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope near Machu
Picchu gave way and crushed them. The deaths raised to five the
number of people killed by rain-triggered floods and landslides in
the area. Government and private helicopters flew out 475 tourists
as US authorities sent four helicopters to bolster rescue efforts.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Peru 2 buses
crashed head-on along a remote stretch of highway in the northeast,
killing at least 38 people and injuring 58.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Mar 16, In Peru President
Alan Garcia fired Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor amid questions
over the pardoning of Jose Enrique Crousillat (77), a former media
executive convicted of taking payoffs to provide favorable coverage
for a previous government.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 27, Peruvian police
said five people have been killed by a mudslide set off by heavy
rains in a remote community of wildcat miners in the southeastern
Andes.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Apr 1, In northeastern
Peru a mudslide killed five people in the town of Cancejos.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 2, In northeastern
Peru landslides caused by heavy rains hit Porvenir, killing at least
23 people and leaving 25 others missing. At least 54 people were
injured.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Peru a 2nd day
of clashes between police and protesting miners left 6 miners dead
as the government tried to put restrictions on unregulated gold
mining in the southern jingle region of Madre de Dios.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 24, In Peru police
Gen. Luis Muguruza, who commanded a police operation against an
Indian road blockade last June that resulted in 33 deaths, was named
a member of the Interior Ministry's human rights commission,
according to a decree published in the government's official
gazette.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 May 12, Peru’s Health
Ministry reported that an estimated 1.5 million or 5% of its
citizens were alcoholics, and that it was now the 2nd leading cause
of illness and death.
(SSFC, 5/16/10, p.A4)
2010 May 25, In Peru a judge
granted parole to Lori Berenson (40), the New York activist who has
spent 15 years in Peruvian prisons on a conviction of aiding leftist
rebels. However, the judge said that Berenson cannot leave Peru
until her sentence for terrorist collaboration ends in November
2015.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 26, In Peru Indian
leader Alberto Pizango was detained upon arrival in Peru's capital
from Nicaragua, where he fled 11 months ago to avoid charges over
violent protests against proposed oil and gas exploration in the
Amazon.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 27, In Peru Lori
Berenson (40), a New Yorker convicted of terrorist collaboration,
walked out of prison with a smile on her face, then pushed through
mobs of reporters before settling into a neighborhood that met her
with hostility.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 30, In Peru Stephany
Flores (21) was killed in a room at a Lima hotel where Joran van der
Sloot (22), long suspected in the 2005 disappearance in Aruba of US
teen Natalee Holloway, had been staying. Her body was found on June
2. Chilean police captured van der Sloot on June 3 as he was heading
to the country's Pacific coast. On June 4 Van der Sloot was
handcuffed and placed aboard a police Cessna 310 in the Chilean
capital of Santiago for extradition to Peru. After 3 days in custody
van der Sloot admitted to killing Flores.
(AP, 6/3/10)(AP, 6/4/10)(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 14, In Peru thousands
of workers blocked a key highway, risking clashes with police at La
Oroya where Doe Run, a US-owned smelter, is at the center of a
bitter year-long environmental dispute. The protest marked the start
of an indefinite strike to compel the government to push back a July
15 deadline imposed on the US firm Doe Run to comply with new
environmental regulations.
(AFP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 17, In Peru American
activist Lori Berenson (40) apologized in a letter to Peru for her
“crime of collaboration with terrorism.” Berenson asked a government
panel to commute her 20-year sentence for aiding the leftist Tupac
Amuru Revolutionary Movement.
(SFC, 6/18/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 22, Peru's coca crop
grew for a fourth straight year, according to the UN, edging the
country closer to Colombia in overall cultivation of the raw
material of cocaine.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Peruvian judge
halted the expulsion of Paul McAuley (62), a British religious
activist. He was accused by the government of inciting unrest among
indigenous groups protesting environmental damage to the Amazon rain
forest.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Peru at least
one farmer died when police cleared a roadblock set by coca growers
demanding the government halt efforts to eradicate coca plantations
in the world's top producer of the leaf, used to make cocaine.
(Reuters, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Peru American
Lori Berenson apologized for aiding leftist rebels and asked a
Peruvian court to let her remain free on parole after serving 15
years of her 20-year sentence behind bars.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 18, In Peru American
activist Lori Berenson, convicted of aiding leftist rebels,
surrendered to police after a court struck down a decision granting
her parole and ordered her to return to prison, where she is to
remain with her 15-month-old son for the time being.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 27, In Peru Police two
Roman Catholic priests were stabbed to death inside the historic at
the San Francisco monastery two blocks from Lima's main square. The
victims are identified as Ananias Aguila of Peru and Linan Ruiz of
Puerto Rico.
(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Sep 14, Peruvian President
Alan Garcia chose Education Minister Jose Chang as the new prime
minister and Ismael Benavides as economic chief in a widely expected
cabinet shuffle to pave the way for his party to launch a candidate
in next year's presidential election.
(Reuters, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 19, In Peru hundreds
of coca growers briefly seized control of a power plant in Aguaytia,
cutting off electricity to the estimated 430,000 people who live in
Ucayali province. Police moved in arresting 120 people and freeing
30 employees. Authorities said that coca growers were still blocking
a main highway with dozens of disabled buses and trucks.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 24, In Peru hundreds
of student protesters toppled a perimeter wall at Cuzco's airport,
prompting flight suspensions and cancellations that stranded about
500 tourists. The students backed peasants who have been blocking
roads in the region for nearly two weeks, protesting government
plans to build a reservoir in the municipality of Espinar.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep, Peruvian police
officers raided a printing press in Lima's San Juan de Lurigancho
district. The operation tallied six different currencies producing
just above $27 million. Fake US $100 bills accounted for nearly
one-third of the total, while euros accounted for another $4
million. The rest of the bills were Bolivian, Chilean, Peruvian and
Venezuelan currency.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101126/wl_time/08599203215200)
2010 Oct 1, In Peru former
President Alberto Fujimori's right hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos,
two top ex-generals and a major were sentenced to 25 years in jail
for ordering murders during Peru's so-called dirty war. They were
found guilty of ordering the Colina Group, a secret army hit squad,
to kill 24 people in two massacres in 1991 and 1992. Twenty other
members of the Colina Group were sentenced to 15-25 years behind
bars.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 2, In Peru a small
plane carrying British tourists crashed near the famed Nazca Lines,
killing all six people on board.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 7, The 2010 Nobel
Prize in literature was awarded to Peruvian writer Mario Vargas
Llosa (b.1936) "for his cartography of structures of power and his
trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat.”
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 19, Bolivia and Peru
signed an agreement giving Bolivia a dock, a free-trade zone and the
right to run some naval vessels.
(SFC, 10/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 5, A Peruvian judge
ordered convicted rebel collaborator Lori Berenson freed from
prison, ruling her initial parole decision sound. Berenson was freed
on Nov 8, but the New Yorker's legal troubles remained unresolved.
(AP, 11/5/10)(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 14, Japan and Peru
said they have reached an agreement on a free-trade deal. The
21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group ended their
summit in Japan with pledges to press ahead with moves toward freer
trade, with an eventual goal of a region-wide free trade zone.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Dec 1, In Peru a tourist
bus collided head-on with a truck loaded with cement, killing 4
travelers from Belgium and one from the Netherlands as well as both
drivers in the southern Chacachaca area. 28 people were injured.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 3, In Peru a bank
robber held 34 people hostage for more than seven hours in a
nationally televised drama that ended when a police sniper crawled
through a ventilation duct and shot and killed him.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2011 Jan 24, Peru joined a
growing number of South American countries in recognizing an
independent and sovereign Palestinian state. The decision does not
recognize Palestine's borders pre-dating the Six-Day War of 1967.
Peru also recognized Israel's indisputable right to exist without
any threats to its people.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Feb 18, Peruvian
journalist Vicky Pelaez (55), deported by the United States last
year to Russia in a spy swap, returned home and said she was in Peru
to attend her father's burial.
(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Mar 6, Off the central
Peruvian coast a gang of criminals known as "the pirates of the sea"
raided a Japanese tuna trawler. The gang of some 20 criminals tied
the crew's hands and feet, then took off with their money, cell
phones and the ship's communication equipment.
(AFP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 30, Peru received a
first shipment of the Incan artifacts taken from the mountain
citadel of Machu Picchu a century ago. Yale University returned 366
pieces, after a lawsuit and personal lobbying of the US president.
The pieces were among some 4,000 adventurer Hiram Bingham took
beginning in 1911 from what has become Peru's leading tourist
attraction.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, Peruvian officials
said a British couple has been arrested at Lima's international
airport as they boarded a plane to London with over 11 kg of cocaine
and 100 heroin capsules. Roxana Laercia (37) stashed the cocaine (24
pounds) between her clothes and Michael Eguonoghen (28) had
swallowed the heroin capsules, the equivalent of 1.5 kg (3.3
pounds).
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 7, In Peru 2
protesters were fatally shot and a dozen others injured in a clash
between police and peasants opposing a planned copper mine on the
southern coast.
(SFC, 4/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 10, Peru held
presidential elections. Leftist Ollanta Humala won the first round
of the presidential election but he did not win a majority according
to exit polls and will now likely face rightist lawmaker Keiko
Fujimori in a run-off.
(Reuters, 4/10/11)
2011 May 3, In Peru a group of
gunmen accosted reporter Julio Castillo Narvaez (41) as he was
leaving a Viru restaurant after lunch and shot him six times, then
fled the scene. Narvaez, who headed the newscast at Radio Ollantay
in the northern city of Viru, was a fierce critic of regional
authorities.
(AFP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 26, In Peru Polish
couple Jaroslaw Frackiewicz (70) and his wife, Celina Mroz (58),
were last seen while kayaking on the Ucayali River. On July 8 police
arrested Fidel Garcia (27). an ethnic Ashaninka. Garcia implicated
his brother-in-law Freddy Ruiz and uncle Roger Ruiz in the couple’s
killing.
(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 May 29, In Peru activists
opposed to a silver mine in the southeastern Puno region rejected a
deal with the government and said protests will continue, even if it
means there will be no regional voting in the upcoming presidential
run-off.
(AFP, 5/29/11)
2011 Jun 1, In Peru El
Comercio's publisher, Francisco Miro Quesada, responded in the
newspaper, calling the accusations by Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa
"ill-intentioned untruths" and saying the author's letter was "full
of lies." Llosa had angrily pulled his biweekly column from Peru's
dominant newspaper on the eve of the presidential runoff election,
calling El Comercio "a propaganda machine" for conservative
candidate Keiko Fujimori.
(AP, 6/1/11)
2011 Jun 5, Peruvians headed to
the polls in a presidential election run-off between a leftist
ex-army colonel and the daughter of jailed former strongman Alberto
Fujimori. Oluntala Humala captured 51.5% of the vote over Keiko
Fujimori’s 48.5%.
(AFP, 6/5/11)(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A4)(Econ, 6/11/11,
p.39)
2011 Jun 6, In Peru the remains
of 5 soldiers arrived in Lima. They were killed in an ambush
attributed to Shining Path guerrillas in the Apurimac River Valley.
(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 13, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia announced his plan to build the world’s tallest statue of
Jesus Christ, standing 120 ft. high. Among those to object is the
mayor of Lima, Susan Villaran, who noted that such a tall statue
would negatively impact the skyline and overshadow other tourist
attractions.
(AFP, 6/13/11)
2011 Jun 24, In Peru three
people wee killed and 15 wounded after police fired on mostly
indigenous protesters when they tried to storm a provincial airport
in the country's southern highlands. Aymara Indian activists have
been protesting since May 9 against a planned silver mine owned by a
Canadian company and a proposed hydroelectric project that would
mostly benefit neighboring Brazil.
(AP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 29, Peruvian President
Alan Garcia inaugurated a giant statue of Jesus similar to Rio de
Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer. "Christ of the Pacific" is 72
feet (22 m) high and stands atop a 49-foot (15-m) concrete base. It
overlooks the Pacific Ocean from Lima. The statue was donated by the
Brazilian company Odebrecht.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Peru Ollanta
Humala, the leftist military man who won the presidency after
abandoning a radical platform, promised in his inaugural address to
make his priority the one in three Peruvians still mired in poverty.
(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul, In Peru Susana Baca
(67), the country’s best-known musician, accepted an offer to join
President Ollanta Humala's government becoming the country's first
black Cabinet minister.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Aug 17, Peru's new
government confirmed that it is temporarily suspending eradication
of coca in the central Tingo Maria region while it re-evaluates its
counter-drug program. Peru is the No. 2 producer of cocaine after
Colombia. Its coca crop has been growing steadily the past four
years.
(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Sep 14, Jose Oquendo Reyes
became the second Peruvian journalist to be slain this month and the
third this year. Oquendo was shot to death in Chincha, a coastal
town 120 miles (200 km) south of Lima. A suspect was arrested.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Oct 28, A 6.9-magnitude
quake just off the central coast of Peru. Peruvian authorities said
134 homes were destroyed and 103 people treated at hospitals for
injuries.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Peru US-based
Newmont Mining Corp. suspended construction at the Conga gold mine
for a fourth day due to continuing protests by peasants who fear it
will damage their water supply. Deputy minister Jose de Echave quit
saying the government "lacks an adequate strategy for dealing with
social conflict."
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Peru US-based
Newmont Mining Corp. suspended its $4.8 billion gold project
at Minas Conga under government pressure to reestablish tranquility
and social peace.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 1, Peru’s El Comercio
reported that Congress has amended the penal code to included prison
sentences of 15-35 years for murders committed by husbands, lovers,
boyfriends and live-in partners. An average of 10 Peruvian women
were murdered monthly by their lovers.
(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 2, In Peru Jose Flores
Hala, one of two remaining leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla
group, said his troops will cease attacks and is calling for a truce
to start peace negotiations with the government.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 4, Peru’s President
Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in the northern
department of Cajamarca following weeks of protests against the
Minas Conga mining project.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.42)
2011 Dec 11, Peruvian President
Ollanta Humala replaced more than half his Cabinet, a day after
accepting its chief minister's resignation in a move widely
interpreted as signaling less tolerance for social protests.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 19, Peruvian migration
officials gave paroled American Lori Berenson (42) a document, three
days after barring her exit, clearing her to leave the country with
her toddler son to spend the holidays with her family in New York
City. Berenson said she fully intended to return to Peru by the
court-ordered deadline of Jan 11.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2012 Jan 6, In Peru Dutch
citizen Joran Van der Sloot said he would "sincerely confess" to
killing a Peruvian woman in 2010 in a plea strategy that aimed to
reduce his eventual prison sentence, prompting judges to suspend the
trial until Jan 11.
(Reuters, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 9, In Peru passengers
in Lima traveled the full length of a 22km elevated railway for the
first time. The project had begun in 1986.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.37)
2012 Jan 10, Peru's government
replaced its drug czar. Ricardo Soberon's refusal to endorse an
all-out coca crop eradication effort put him at odds with the
Cabinet chief and prompted concern by the US Embassy.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Peru Joran van
der Sloot (24) pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of a Peruvian woman
he met at a Lima casino who was killed five years to the day after
the unsolved disappearance in Aruba of an American teen in which he
remains the main suspect. On Jan 13 he was sentenced to 28 years in
prison. Due to time already served, his sentence would end in June
2038.
(AP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Peru a fire
swept through a two-story private rehabilitation center for addicts
in a poor part of Lima, killing 27 people and critically injuring
five. The "Christ is Love" center for drug and alcohol addicts was
unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept
locked inside.
(AP, 1/29/12)
2012 Jan 30, In Peru some 112
people were treated for injuries after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake
struck the country's central coast at 11 minutes after midnight.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 9, In Peru the rebel
known as Comrade Artemio (50), Florindo "Jose" Flores, was reported
wounded. On Feb 12 government troops captured the badly wounded
leader of a remnant of the once-powerful Shining Path rebel group
that lives off the cocaine trade. Artemio had practically lost his
right arm.
(AP, 2/12/12)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Peru
End of file.