With an area of almost 1.29 million squared kilometers, Peru is one of the most diverse countries with respect to the geography, altitudes, climates, flora and fauna, and, in short, a wide palette of landscapes. Travel blogs and columns specialized in Latin America highlight Peru, as well as Brazil, as a favorite destination among adventurous travelers.
One of those explorers, the North American Hiram Bingham (1875-1956), is remembered for the revelation—the rediscovery—of the sanctuary city of Machu Picchu. Bingham, who was the inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones, was not the one who discovered the grand site. He recognized that the landowner Agustín Lizarraga had been there before, in 1902. However, it was Bingham shared with the world the marvel, accepted as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1983.
Previously, Bingham had explored the jungle regions of Colombia, Venezuela, and even Peru. In 1911, with the financial support of his Yale peers, he led an exploration that departed from Cuzco in search for the “lost Inca city.” On September 24, after overcoming innumerable difficulties, walking on the edge of precipices, and risking areas infected with snakes, Bingham, a soldier of surname Carrasco, and a farmer named Melchor Arteaga, reached a point from where they saw the site’s magnificence. Stunned, they managed to walk through it and get a first idea of the extraordinary nature of this discovery.
Upon his return to the United States, the National Geographic Society sponsored expeditions in 1912, 1914, and 1915 (this last one after World War I began). Initially, the sanctuary city was intact. In April of 1913, the National Geographic magazine published a monographic edition to narrate the expedition and show pictures of Machu Pichu, the city built by the Incas in the XV century, six kilometers above the sea level, which had been rediscovered by this tenacious archaeologist. (Click here for some of the extraordinary photographs taken 107 years ago, available on the web).
A panoramic view of Peru’s recent history is a surprising tale of the Peruvians’ capacity for resilience and recovery. The events of the last 40 years are overwhelming. For starters, in the eighties, an internal terrorist war engendered, promoted by the communist groups Sendero Luminoso and Movimiento Revolutionario Túpac Amaru (Bright Pathway and Revolutionary Tupac Amaru Movement, respectively) against the State and Peruvian society. This conflict is comparable to the wars that bled Central America: more than 70 thousand people were killed, including peasants, guerrillas, policemen, members of the army, journalists, and inhabitants of the big cities. Several of the most important writers of Peru in recent years—Ricardo Uceda, Alfonzo Cueto, Lurgio Gavilán, José Carlos Agüero, Santiago Rocagliolo, and Marcos Avilés, among others—have published shocking books based on those terrible events, which left wounds yet to heal.
In 1981, the Paruvian military conflict with Ecuador caused stupor in the world, falling further into oblivion during the last two decades. This event, known as the Paquisha War, was, fortunately, controlled eleven days after initiating. In 2000, the case of the “vladivideos” and “vladiaudios” exploded—without exaggeration. These were videos and audios starring Vladimiro Montesinos, who was head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), and who has remained in prison on charges of murder, arms trafficking, and corruption, among others.
Without a doubt, Peru deserves a special consideration in the region. Unlike Venezuela, where there has been a colossal economic decline without political changes in the leadership and regime responsible for this debacle, Peru has experienced, since the second presidency of Alan García, an impressive sustained economic growth, without an observable consolidation of a political leadership or party system that capitalizes the scope of managing the economy. In fact, Peru has reached the year-on-year average at its highest growth rate in the entire region.
From July 1985 until March 2018, Peru has had seven presidents: Alan García, twice; Alberto Fujimori, three times, one of them with the addition of an auto coup d’état; Valentín Paniagua Corazao, who took over after Fujimori’s dismissal; Alejandro Toledo, once; Ollanta Humalla, once; and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard. The current president, Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, took office in March 2018, once Kuczynski resigned. Just as the media around the world reports, five former presidents— Fujimori, Toledo, Humala, Kuczynski, and Garcia, who took his life on April 17—are prisoners, fugitives, or being investigated for corruption. Peru is probably the country where the Odebrecht case—even more than in Brazil—has produced the toughest storms for the political class.
Similarly, the economic growth has not resulted in a better distribution of wealth. The contrasts and inequality continue to be very important. Perhaps this is the reason why the correlation between an economic growth and the consolidation of a political leadership has not been established, stuck in this astonishing web of corruption.
Two weeks ago, on May 16, the popular former mayor of Lima, Susana Villarán, was remanded in custody for the Odebrecht case. So is Keiko Fujimori, the former congress member, former presidential candidate, and daughter of the former president Fujimori. Both have been accused of receiving money from the company for their electoral campaign. These legal processes, which go beyond the Odebrecht case, could involve many other people, including judiciary. Together, these cases make up a disturbing picture of the depth with which corruption is embedded in the Peruvian public sector.
The Public Ministry of Peru was created in 1979 as an independent body. In 1993, when the current Constitution was approved, the principle of autonomy was ratified. Based on this principle, numerous investigations and judicial decisions have saved Peruvian democracy, because it has returned confidence of the work of institutions to the public. The Prosecutor’s Office now has more than 6,500 prosecutors, specialized in matters such as gender violence, money laundering, and the environment. Zoraida Ávalos Rivera, Attorney General, has insisted that the budget and the action of that entity should be understood not as an expense but as an investment. The institution enjoys international prestige, because it is one of the few that has achieved the greatest advances in the world through its activity against political and judicial corruption; and has managed to resist the pressures to prevent it from fulfilling its purposes.
This panorama suffered an alteration the past April 17, after it was announced former president García committed suicide, just as officials were on the way to take him into custody. Two days later, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, a judge ordered preventive detention for former president Kuczynski, 80 years old, who was in a clinic due to a heart condition. After that, critical voices started accusing the Public Ministry of an excessive use of preventive detention, which is applied in the investigation phase and that is stipulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure. At this juncture, president Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, who until now had been unaware of scandals and legal proceedings, addressed the country with a sober speech in which he wondered if the exceptional judicial measures that have been applied respond only to criteria of exceptionality or are moved by other criteria. In addition, he pointed out that the slowness of the investigation processes punishes those under investigation with long periods of preventive prison.
This and other events have surfaced a debate on the necessary regeneration of Peruvian politics. Yet, there is a fundamental matter that warrants the attention of Latin American citizens: Peru could be considered the continental experiment to lead the efforts of some institutions to control and punish corruption. The results achieved by the Peru’s Public Ministry could well become exemplars for other countries.
Simultaneously, the government of President Vizcarra—who has made the anti-corruption fight the most outstanding of his emblems, and faces constant opposition from the Congress of the Republic, dominated by a Fujimorist majority—has to continue advancing in the path of economic growth and poverty reduction, which Peru has achieved, despite some ups and downs, over the past two decades.
According to the IMF estimates, Peru will grow almost 4% in 2019 and will maintain a similar rate until 2023. Projected inflation is around 2.5%, which guarantees advantages to increase investments and internal consumption. The country’s chief economic activities, such as agriculture, fishing, mining, construction, and services, also reflect optimistic numbers.
With a population of over 32 million inhabitants, around 21% of Peruvians—just over 6 million—live in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty. This percentage increases dramatically among the populations that live in jungle areas—around 15%—, most of whom are indigenous. Another serious issue, which requires an immediate response, is gender-based violence, which grew in 2018. According to the Ministry of Women, 147 women were murdered last year by their partners or former partners. Statistics from the Ministry of Health confirm that the trend is undeniable: of 107 thousand cases of violence registered in 2018, more than 70 thousand were against women. In fact, the UN Committee Against Torture issued a statement last December expressing its concern about indicators of gender violence in Peru.
As in any country in Latin America, other problems could be added to this general vision. But in the case of Peru, referring to the environmental issue is inexcusable. One of the most urgent issues is the Amazon Waterway, which involves converting the waters of four rivers—Huallaga, Marañón, Ucayali and Amazonas—into a waterway of 2 thousand 600 kilometers for the use of cargo, passenger, and tourism transport. Indigenous groups, universities, and organizations that defend the environment maintain strong opposition to the project not only because of its environmental impact, but also because of the basis of the studies, which these groups accuse to have been penetrated by corruption.
Although taking on a different reality, the other controversial project is the Hydrocarbons Law—currently being discussed in the Congress of the Republic. Here, the interests of the sectors involved and affected converge. One sector advocates in favor of a law that stimulates the oil activity, while the other—environmentalists, experts in sustainability, political organizations, ethnic groups—opposes the dangers that a law based on developmental criteria would pose for the environment. This law would make environmental demands lower or more flexible, grant an omnipotent power to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and open the door to the use of the controversial fracking technique.
The effective management of protected areas, the control of illegal deforestation, the review of penalties for environmental crimes, and the establishment of marine reserves, are only part of the broad agenda of pending issues for Peru. Its sustained lines of action against corruption, reduction of poverty and inequality, as well as the protections of Peruvian’s environmental resources, will become the foundation for sustainable economic progress that Peruvians demand.