Ayacucho: Studying Human Rights In The Andes

Ayacucho: Studying Human Rights in the Andes from Kirk Walker on Vimeo.

Argentina Oil Company Leaves Perú Town After Protests

Results Of Oil Contamination Reported In Amazon Region

Resource:  BBC

Sent to us from Tom Skinner

An Argentine oil company says it will withdraw from an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it has been prospecting for gas deposits.

The company, Pluspetrol, was asked to leave by the government after the death of a demonstrator in Junin province, during four days of violent protests.

The demonstrators, mostly indigenous people, accused the company of contaminating local rivers and soil. Pluspetrol denied causing any environmental damage.

It said it had met all legal requirements for exploratory work, including getting consent from more than 2,000 farmers in the area. The company said it would remove its remaining equipment from the area, known as Block 108, near the municipality of Pichanaki in the coming days. A spokesman denied the company was being forced to leave, saying it was going because it had finished its work in the area. He said the company had met all legal, environmental and social requirements for exploratory work in the block, including securing consent from farmers and communities.

Pluspetrol started exploratory activities in Block 108 last year with the approval of the government.
Energy and Mines Minister Eleodoro Mayorga said he believed the company had complied with its contract but was asking it to leave the block so that the government could evaluate its activities.

On Tuesday, a crowd of protestors stormed a military base being used by Pluspetrol as a storage area. They were driven back by police firing tear gas but a 25 year-old man was killed and 20 injured, police say.

Reuters news agency says the interior ministry is investigating the illegal use of firearms by police during the demonstrations.

Pluspetrol is also struggling to end conflicts in the northern Amazon, where indigenous protestors have taken control of oil wells and stopped output in the country's biggest oil block. Protests and demonstrations have continued for a decade in Peru in many areas of the country where foreign oil companies are prospecting and mining for oil and minerals.

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Webinar Invitation

Grace and peace to you.

Join us for a webinar to learn from and pray with our partners working in Egypt. Hear how our brothers and sisters are being impacted by recent happenings, and learn how God is present in the midst of this situation. We will have the chance to hear from one of our Egyptian global partners, a Presbyterian mission co-worker, and Amgad Beblawi, World Mission's Area Coordinator for the Middle East.

When: Thursday, August 29 at 1:00 PM (EST)

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We hope you will be able to join us for this important conversation. Please share this event with your congregations and colleagues.

In Christ,

Hunter Farrell

Director, Presbyterian World Mission

Mission Crossroads PC(USA)

La Oroya Refinery Will Not Be Sold After All

Resource:  Platts

By Renzo Pipoli

Doe Run Peru's La Oroya metal refinery will not be sold off as previously expected, as the company will instead be restructured, the court-appointed administrator said Friday.

"The creditors of Doe Run [Peru] met this week and agreed to change the mandate from a liquidation to a restructuring, designating Right Business as the administrator," Rocio Chavez, general manager of Right Business, said in an e-mail Friday. "It has given us 60 days to ready a restructuring plan."

Chavez said that if the mandate had not been changed, the plant would have been immediately closed and workers let go, because the prior mandate to liquidate assets was about to expire.

The plant is processing zinc and lead, but not copper. Chavez said the copper circuit remains closed because a project to produce sulfuric acid -- while at the same time cutting emissions -- and make other upgrades is not finished, "which makes that operation impossible."

The refinery stopped operating in mid-2009, after suppliers halted deliveries of feedstock mineral concentrates due to nonpayment. At the same time, the Peruvian government said the company had to invest in upgrades that would reduce pollution. The company's creditors eventually took it to bankruptcy court, leading to the appointment of a temporary administrator.

La Oroya, which before the closure had some 3,500 workers, restarted operations with fewer than 1,000 workers in July 2012, running just the zinc circuit. It restarted the lead circuit later the same year.

The Recline And Fall Of Western Civilization

Issustration By Alex Eben Meyer

Resource:  Slate

By Dan Kois

The woman sitting in front of me on this plane seems perfectly nice. She, like me, is traveling coach class from Washington to Los Angeles. She had a nice chat before takeoff with the man sitting next to her, in which she revealed she is an elementary school teacher, an extremely honorable profession. She, like me, has an aisle seat and has spent most of the flight watching TV. Nevertheless, I hate her.

Why? She’s a recliner.

For the five minutes after takeoff, every passenger on an airliner exists in a state of nature. Everyone is equally as uncomfortable as everyone else—well, at least everyone who doesn’t have the advantage of first class seating or the disadvantage of being over 6 feet tall. The passengers are blank slates, subjects of an experiment in morality which begins the moment the seat-belt light turns off.

Ding! Instantly the jerk in 11C reclines his seat all the way back. The guy in 12C, his book shoved into his face, reclines as well. 13C goes next. And soon the reclining has cascaded like rows of dominos to the back of the plane, where the poor bastards in the last row see their personal space reduced to about a cubic foot.

Or else there are those, like me, who refuse to be so rude as to inconvenience the passengers behind us. Here I sit, fuming, all the way from IAD to LAX, the deceptively nice-seeming schoolteacher’s seat back so close to my chin that to watch TV I must nearly cross my eyes. To type on this laptop while still fully opening the screen requires me to jam the laptop’s edge into my stomach.

Obviously, everyone on the plane would be better off if no one reclined; the minor gain in comfort when you tilt your seat back 5 degrees is certainly offset by the discomfort when the person in front of you does the same. But of course someone always will recline her seat, like the people in the first row, or the woman in front of me, whom I hate. (At least we’re not in the middle seat. People who recline middle seats are history’s greatest monsters.)

What options do we, the reclined-upon, have? We can purchase the Knee Defender, a product which snaps onto the tray table and prevents the passenger seated in front of us from reclining their seat. But that seems fraught with potential awkward complications. What if the person ahead of you protests? What if the flight attendant gets angry? (The website for Knee Defenders even acknowledges these difficulties with a whole page titled “Etiquette on Airplanes”—and offers printable “courtesy cards” to hand to the person in front of you.)

Lacking a Knee Defender, you can politely ask the person in front of you not to recline. But then the person in front of you is filled with resentment, because he feels you have forced him to give up his comfort in favor of yours. (Plus, the person in front of him may have reclined her seat.)

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Perú Objects To Warning

Resource: New York Times

By: The Associated Press

A United States Embassy warning to American tourists about a potential kidnapping threat in the Cuzco region of Peru, which includes the Incan citadel Machu Picchu, drew vehement objections from Peruvian officials on Friday.

But a United States Embassy official said credible evidence existed of a threat from a Peruvian terrorist group.

The official confirmed a report in La República, a Peruvian newspaper, that said that leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla group had discussed kidnapping foreigners, particularly Americans, in intercepted communications. Tens of thousands of Americans visit Peru each year.

The official agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name because of the political delicacy of the warning.

La República said its sources about the interceptions included members of Peru’s military high command, but the country’s military chief, Adm. José Cueto, said that he had no such information.

“Perhaps it is information that they alone have and have not shared,” Admiral Cueto said of the United States government.

The embassy warning that mentioned Peru’s biggest tourist draw was posted on the embassy’s Facebook page on Thursday. Dated Feb. 13, it was also posted on the embassy’s Web site.

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Threat For Machu Picchu Travelers

Resource:  Miami Herald
By Frank Bajak
Associated Press

A U.S. Embassy warning to U.S. tourists of a potential kidnapping threat in the Cuzco region, including the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, drew vehement objections from Peruvian officials Friday.

But a U.S. Embassy official said credible evidence exists of a threat from a Peruvian terrorist group.

The official confirmed a report in the Peruvian newspaper La Republica that said leaders of the cocaine-financed Shining Path outlaw band discussed kidnapping foreigners, principally Americans, in intercepted communications. Tens of thousands of Americans visit Peru each year.

The official agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name due to the political sensitivity of the warning.

La Republica cited sources about the interceptions including members of Peru's military high command, but the country's military chief, Adm. Jose Cueto, told The Associated Press that he had no such information.

"Perhaps it is information that they alone have and have not shared," Cueto said of the U.S. government.

The embassy warning that mentioned Peru's biggest tourist draw was posted on the U.S. Embassy's Facebook page Thursday. Dated Feb. 13, it was also posted on the embassy's website.

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Abused For Bearing Female Children

Resource:  allAfrica

Written by Mantebaleng Ramokhele

My name is Mantebaleng Ramokhele and I live in the Mohale's Hoek district in Lesotho. I was married to a man that I was dearly in love with. Even today, I still do not understand what happened to him and why he changed so much. He was like somebody new to me, I really did not know him anymore and when I asked him about it, he would get very angry and start to beat me up.

My husband abused me like he was forced into our marriage. We fell in love and we were so much in love that I did not understand what really went wrong, but he did not want anything to do with me. He wanted to have a kid as soon as possible, but it was a challenge because I was not able to conceive. It was really difficult and he was not ready to see a doctor in order to determine what was really wrong.

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Upper Class Warfare In The Hamptons

Resource:  Mother Jones
Written by Josh Harkinson

Illustration: Martin Kozlowski

With twin 2,520-horsepower engines and up to 19 seats, the Sikorsky S-92 is among the world's most powerful civilian helicopters. "Helibuses" typically service offshore oil platforms and the like, but two years ago billionaire industrialist Ira Rennert acquired a posh version to shuttle himself between Manhattan and Long Island's exclusive Hamptons, where he owns a 63-acre, 110,000-square-foot villa complex. One of the first to notice the giant bird was Frank Dalene, founder and CEO of a successful luxury homebuilding company, who lives on a ridge along Rennert's flight path. Its whumping rotor was like "a lightning bolt striking nearby," says Dalene, a fast-talking 58-year-old with a long nose and narrow-set eyes. He blames the vibrations for "literally damaging my home."

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We apologize in advance for the language

Prominent American Businessman Ira Rennert Faces Extradition To Perú

Ira Rennert's House

Resource:  DC Bureau

By Angel Paez

Lima, Peru – American Ira Rennert, known for his lavish lifestyle and operating companies that have polluted whole communities, may soon face an international arrest warrant followed by extradition to Peru if a judge has her way.

Rennert faces charges relating to alleged financial and business irregularities involving the La Oroya lead smelter, a notorious facility accused of poisoning thousands of children and adults living near the infamous complex. The facility is one of the most contaminated industrial sites on earth where local children were exposed to high levels of lead for decades.

Rennert’s lawyers have tried to prevent his return to Peru to face official questioning in his role in managing the La Oroya metallurgical complex. The Peruvian government claims Rennert’s company, the majority shareholder of Doe Run Peru (DRP), made billions of dollars in profits off of La Oroya and never kept agreements to clean-up the huge site.

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Thank you Sara!

Are Lesotho Hospitals Safe For Women Living With HIV?

Resource:  Informative News
By Keiso Mohloboli

MASERU- There is an assumption that hospitals are healing places where people living with HIV receive medical services in a safe facility, from trustworthy heath practitioners.

While this can be the case, there is no shortage of documentation regarding the struggle of women living with HIV to access basic care, support and treatment.

According to International Community of Women (ICW) living with HIV regional coordinator Promise Mthembu, there is lack of remedies and of justice.

“Talking to women who are members of ICW – Lesotho, I have learned that women living with HIV are often mistreated in hospital settings. I found out two cases where our members lost their wombs in hospitals without their consent,” said Mthembu.

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Riot At Wholesale Market

Resource: The Sacramento Bee

By Gonzalo Ruiz Tovar

LIMA, Peru -- Two people were killed and close to 110 people, including 50 police officers, were injured in riots that caused damage worth millions of dollars in the Peruvian capital Lima, authorities said Friday.

The riots broke out late Thursday around the wholesale market La Parada, which was closed by the government of Lima Mayor Susana Villaran for not meeting security and hygiene requirements. The riots broke out as police placed fences around the market to prevent trucks from entering the site.

According to reports, police were overwhelmed by hundreds of rioters and police were attacked in some cases. National television broadcast footage of the beating of one police officer, who was seriously injured.

Rioters later were said to have moved to another market, looting shops as well as attacking passers-by.

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The other market that the rioters moved to was the Gamarra Gamarra Market...  Better known to all that visit Lima as the "Indian Market"!

Perú Doctors To Suspend Strike Over Pay

Resource:  BBC

Thousands of doctors in Peru have agreed to suspend a strike that has left many poor people without medical care for more than a month.

The leader of the doctors' union, Cesar Palomino, said they would return to work while they consider government proposals for a pay rise.

The doctors had complained that their pay was not increasing despite strong economic growth in Peru.

The strike caused huge backlogs in hospitals and clinics.

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Perú Healthcare Feels Strain Of Doctor's Strike

Perú Hospital Managers Walkout

Resource:  BBC

About 90% of hospital managers in Peru have resigned in support of doctors on strike over pay, union officials say.

The head of Peru's medical federation, Cesar Palomino, told the BBC that more than 300 managers had quit in the capital Lima alone.

The walkout by 11,000 doctors, now in its fifth week, has caused huge backlogs in hospitals and clinics.

Doctors say that despite Peru's recent strong economic growth, their pay has not been increased in years.

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Citibank To Take Over "Perú's Chernobyl"

Resource:  World War 4 Report

Mon, 10/15/2012 - Creditors of the troubled Doe Run Peru company voted to sell the controversial metal smelting complex at La Oroya, Junín region, to Citibank, Peru's Energy and Mines Ministry (MEM) announced Oct. 11. The New York financial giant will have responsibility for reorganizing the smelter's debts and environmental management plan, as well as those of another scandal-ridden project that will be transferred, the Cobriza gold and copper mine in neighboring Huancavelica region. After three years of being idled by government order over pollution concerns, the decrepit Oroya smelter, which has been dubbed "Peru's Chernobyl," resumed limited operations in July. The local dispute over the issue bitterly divided the local community, pitting campesinos who oppose the smelter against residents employed by Doe Run, who were laid off when the plant was ordered shut. 

Last year, Doe Run Peru was cited by MEM for resuming construction of a tailings containment area at Cobriza without approval. The mine is still officially halted pending an environmental impact review.

5 Factors That Brought A Dying Church Back To Life

By J.D. Greear
Create A Sending Culture

In my opinion, creating a sending culture is essential to revitalizing a church. Churches that are revitalized see themselves as communities on mission with God, not as country clubs for Christians.

One very practical thing you can do to encourage this mentality is to send as many people on short-term mission trips as possible. Few things open our eyes to missional living like spending time with missionaries overseas. The more that mentality gets into the bloodstream of the church, the more church members become willing to apply missional principles to their own context.

During our first two years, we sent an inordinate amount of our people and leaders overseas. It cost a lot of money and took up valuable time, but it did two things. First, it raised the level of generosity in our church. Having seen the needs on the field, the people gave. The trips may have cost us a lot of money, but they paid for themselves many times over. Second, it made our people ask themselves if we were laboring to reach our city the same way that missionaries overseas were laboring to reach theirs.

When you create a sending culture in your church, you will likely lose some of your best people to a church plant or a missions assignment. But don’t be afraid; the sending culture creates more leaders to take their place. It has worked for us like the five loaves and two fish: the more we give away, the more is multiplied and given back to us.

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Outrage Over Death Squad Decision

Peruvians are reacting with widespread anger to a Supreme Court ruling that could allow the imminent release of military death squad members who took part in notorious 1990s killings under the government of Alberto Fujimori.

In the 3-2 ruling, seven members of the so-called Colina death squad created under the auspices of then-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos may now apply immediately for parole, legal experts say.

Full story...

Perú And Chile Tensions Flare

LIMA, Peru — Historical tensions between Chile and Peru are on the rise ahead of a keenly awaited ruling on the South American nations’ disputed maritime frontier.

The latest source of friction has been a leaked draft of Santiago’s national defense strategy, published in Peru, in which Chilean President Sebastian Pinera warns that his country must be ready for armed conflict.

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