Peru

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Authorities in Peru have charged five men in the timber industry with the 2014 murders of four indigenous activists who had battled illegal logging in the Amazon jungle.

Two timber executives and three loggers have been charged with the shooting deaths of the activists, prosecutor Otoniel Jara, who works in Peru’s remote Ucayali region, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Inside a colonial-era mansion that has seen better days, leaders of Peru’s Fuerza Popular movement gathered for an urgent meeting Thursday, scrambling for ways to save their party’s once-dominant place in politics.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A struggle between Peru’s president and congress over who will govern threatened to become a lengthy and destabilizing legal battle as each side dug in Tuesday amid the deepest constitutional crisis in nearly three decades, though one rival claimant to the presidency dropped out of the fight late in the day.

LIMA, Aug 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Peru and Colombia proposed an emergency Amazon summit for countries in the region in order to coordinate a strategy to protect the vast rainforest currently blighted by numerous fires.

The Amazon is known as the “planet’s lungs” but is suffering from its worst outbreak of fires in years, which has sparked a global outcry.

28 August 2019; AFP: Archeologists in Peru say the 227 bodies they have unearthed from a site used by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture is the biggest-ever discovery of sacrificed children.

Archeologists have been digging since last year at the huge sacrificial site in Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of the capital Lima.

"This is the biggest site where the remains of sacrificed children have been found," chief archeologist Feren Castillo told AFP on Tuesday.

18 August 2019; DW: Hundreds of women have taken part in a demonstration in Peru's capital, Lima, to draw attention to the problem of gender violence in the country. Peru has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the region.

29 July 2019; AFP: Peru's President Martin Vizcarra on Sunday offered to cut short his term and hold elections to end what he called an institutional crisis.

He said in a speech to Congress this would also involve shortening the term of the legislature. As it stands, general elections are scheduled for July of next year.

Vizcarra's proposal comes with Peru's executive and legislative branches locked in a massive power struggle.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A powerful magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Amazon jungle in north-central Peru early Sunday, the U.S. Geological survey reported, collapsing buildings and knocking out power to some areas.

The quake struck at 2:41 a.m. and was centered 47 miles (75 kilometers) south-southeast of the village of Lagunas and 57 miles (92 kilometers) east of the larger town of Yurimaguas. The epicenter was 68 miles (110 kilometers) below the surface.

In a tweet, President Martín Vizcarra called for calm and said that authorities were checking the affected areas.

20 Apr 2019; DW: A judge in Peru ruled Friday that former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski remain in pre-trial custody for up to three years, as prosecutors prepare charges against him for allegedly accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

LIMA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Peruvian government on Friday confirmed the resignation of Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva.

In a statement, the president's office said the prime minister "has presented his resignation letter to the President of the Republic."

It said that Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra "deeply appreciates the work carried out with commitment and dedication (by Villanueva) during his tenure."

Villanueva served as prime minister in 2013-2014 and became prime minister for a second time in 2018.