Andean Currents

The Chile Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:32:00 +0000

At 3:34 a.m. local time Saturday, Feb. 27, Chile was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in this century. The 8.8 magnitude temblor that struck about 70 miles north-east of the city of Concepcion devastated the Andean nation although the extent of the damage is only beginning to be known.

The government has confirmed the deaths of 140 people although many more have been reported missing and the death toll is almost certain to rise.

The earthquake is estimated to be more than 500 times more powerful than the devastating 7.0 magnitude event that struck Haiti on Jan. 12. Only four earthquakes since 1900 have exceeded it in terms of intensity. The largest earthquake on record is the 9.5 magnitude temblor that struck Chile on May 22, 1960 near the location of Saturday's quake. That earthquake claimed 1,655 lives and left 2 million homeless.

Several news organizations have posted slideshows with images of the scale of the destruction. These include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, BBC, Salon and Yahoo! News.

Volcanos Put Ecuador and Chile on Alert

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:20:00 +0000

A pair of volcanoes in South America that sputtered to life two years ago but lapsed into relative dormancy have resumed volatile activity over the past several weeks.

On Jan. 11, the Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador erupted sending an ash columns two-and-a-half miles into the air. About two dozen smaller eruptions followed that day with ash and lava pouring out of the mountain regularly for weeks afterward.

The Ecuadorian government has been sorely tested by the disaster. While it struggled to alleviate the crop loses expected due to the massive ashfall, heavy rains struck the region causing widespread flooding and fatal mudslides.

Scientists with the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador remain concerned that another large eruption could be possible.

Tungurahua, whose name means "Throat of Fire," had not had a major eruption for eighty years when it rumbled back to life in October 1999 forcing 17,000 people to be evacuated from the nearby tourist town of Banos. It has remained active since with a spike in activity in 2006 leading to evacuations as well.

In Southern Chile, the Chaiten volcano has also began exhibiting signs of life after two years of quiescence. The country's National Emergency Office put the area under red alert due to a worrisome uptick in seismic activity over the past month.

Chaiten, which had been dormant for 9,000 years, erupted in May 2008 causing widespread evacuations and ashfalls that carpeted Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia.

South America's Space Race

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:42:00 +0000

Last week, Bolivia's President Evo Morales announced the creation of the country's own space agency and the intention to have a satellite in orbit within three years.

If successful, the tiny Andean nation will be fifth in South America with it's own successful satellite program joining Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and, with a launch slated for later this year, Chile.

Bolivia's effort to construct the communications satellite is slated to start next month, according to Morales. The satellite has been named Túpac Katari, an Aymara Indian leader who fought Spanish colonialists,

Bolivia has allocated $1 million to the infant agency but has hopes that China will help meet the estimated $300 million price tag on the endeavor. The Andean nation will also seek funding and technical assistance from other countries.

The effort follows on a similar Chinese-backed space initiative undertaken in 2004 by Morales' political ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The $406 million effort culminated in the launch of the nation's first communications satellite - the Simon Bolivar - in 2008.

Chile and Argentina also harbor aspirations for their satellite programs. Chile's Sistema Satelital para la Observación de la Tierra (SSOT) satellite was built with French assistance is slated to launch in the next few months. Argentina's SAC-D satellite was developed with help from NASA should launch in May.

While the number of South American nations with space agencies developing satellites is growing, they remain dependent on other nations to propel their projects into orbit. The Venezuelan satellite, for example, was carried by a Chinese Long March 3II rocket launched from the Satellites Launching Center of Xichang in China’s Sichuan Province.

The only country in the region with a satellite development program as well as a rocket program and launch facilities is Brazil.

Since the late 1980s, the Brazilian Space Agency (known by it's Portuguese-language acronym, AEB) has worked in coordination with China to develop it's own satellite program. Three satellites have been put into orbit as part of the $1.5 billion program.

For the past decade, the Brazilian Space Agency has also been working on the development of it's own satellite launch vehicle with the assistance of Russian experts. The country's first successful rocket launch in 2004, a year after a launch-pad explosion killed 21 people.

Brazil plans to launch a four-stage satellite launch vehicle - another joint effort with China - as early as next year.

A key advantage in Brazil's favor is the location of Alcantara rocket base (CLA) that sits just 150 miles off the equator. That allows the earth's own rotation provides and additional boost to help rockets reach escape velocity. The upshot is that launch vehicles use less propellant and can carry larger payloads.

In addition to its own orbital efforts, Brazil has sought to market Alcantara as an international space port and has received interest from Russia, China and the US into using it's facilities.

The growth of the base has caused concern about the effects to hundreds of local residents, mostly indigenous fishing and farming villagers.

Alcantara's biggest challenger is the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, better known as Guiana Space Centre. Located just more than 300 miles north of the equator, has been used by European and Russian space agencies since 1968.

The gravitational advantage of the spaceport has made it popular for the heaviest commercial satellites such as the TerreStar-1 platform that was launched last June. The 7.7 ton payload carried by the Arieane 5 rocket - approximately the same as a full-grown African elephant - is the largest satellite ever carried into orbit.

Peruvian Cuisine Continues To Convert

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:52:00 +0000

Peruvian cuisine has been the "next big thing" for several years now but the fact it hasn't yet burst completely into the US culinary mainstream isn't a sign that things are slowing down a bit.

In the last year, features on Peruvian food have appeared in; The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Seattle Times.

One reason for the growing interest is the numbers of Peruvian restaurants have continued to emerge across the US. In many cases these establishments are founded by immigrants who cater to fellow Peruvians.

For the uninitiated, the mix between authenticity and camp involved in the presentation either works like a charm or it doesn't. What isn't up for debate is the quality of the cooking at the place in question.

By their sheer weight of numbers these mom and pop restaurants are making inroads into the American culinary landscape from within the borders of the US. But at least one chef from Peru is laboring to export the priceless commodity directly from the land of it's origins.

Gaston Acurio has become the champion of the Peruvian table. In the US he's probably best known for appearing on Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel show, "No Reservations."

Since opening his flagship Astrid & Gaston in Lima two decades ago, Acurio has taken up the banner of Peruvian cuisine with gusto. He is a tireless promoter and businessman who has successfully established several high-end restaurant chains featuring foods from his native country across Latin America.

Acurio's intent has been to introduce the idea of the classic Peruvian restaurants, such as the country's ubiquitous cebicherias, into a fine dining environment.

His inaugural foray into the US market was the La Mar Cebicheriea in San Francisco which opened in 2008. The reviews were excellent and locals were ecstatic but the effort to import chaotic ambiance of the Peruvian cebicheriea may have been a bit too successful.

But, perhaps more importantly, with the opening of Acurio's restaurant, foodies in the Bay area discovered that there were quite a few other locales featuring food from Peru well deserving of the culinary traditions of their homeland.

And the United States is only one front of Acurio's culinary revolution. Recently he was host to a cooking conference in Lima featuring of eight Basque chefs who demonstrated ways the two culinary traditions could fuse and strengthen each other.

Last month, the gastronomic exchange went the other direction as Peruvian food was a highlight of the international culinary festival Madrid Fusion 2010.

The reputation of Lima as a gastronomic capitol is only expected to gain momentum as tourists in the Andean nation are denied access to the country's biggest draw, the famed "lost city" of the Incas, Machu Picchu.

The mountatintop citadel has been closed while repairs are made to the railway line that washed away in recent flooding. While Machu Picchu itself is expected to reopen in April but rail access could take weeks longer to be restored. In the meantime, the country's tourism agency is promoting other highlights such as the cuisine.

Many visitors find Peruvian cuisine a delightful discovery on their vacation but, more and more, tour agencies are selling high end culinary tours that cater specifically to gastronomes.

Venezuela Tries to Make it Rain

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Venezuela's colorful head of state, Hugo Chavez, has seemingly turned to the pages of science fiction to find solutions for his country's devastating drought.

An El Niño-related drought has dropped river and reservoir levels throughout the country leading to drastic shortages in power and drinking water in the country. Last year Chavez announced he would begin using technology made available from Cuba to begin "bombing" clouds to produce rain.

The process involves spraying silver iodide into the clouds either from a plane or from cannons on the ground. The chemical then draws the moisture out of the clouds allowing it to fall to the earth as rain. Although it has been available since the 1980s, its effectiveness remains an open question.

Venezuela is utilizing technology Cuba obtained from Russia several years ago to help control the mercurial nature of weather over the island nation (cloud seeding has been theorized as a way to deter hurricanes).

According to the Global Post, Venezuela's National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (MARN) says the strategy has worked, but the question is how well.

“Where we have sewn it has rained,” said MARN president Jose Gregorio Sottolano. “What I can’t tell you, and it would be a lie, is how much water has fallen and if it has increased.”

The process isn't as esoteric as it was two decades ago. Today the technology is being used by utility companies in the US as well as China where more than 35,000 people working in cloud seeding programs across the country.

So, in this particular case, perhaps science fiction is proving to be science fact. Not a likely outcome for Chavez' other recent claim that the Haiti earthquake was caused by the United States testing a "tectonic weapon" off the coast of the island nation.

Bringing South American Dictators to Justice

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Uruguay's former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the constitution during a 1973 coup that began 12 years of dictatorship in the South American country.

The conviction of the 81-year-old former despot is the latest chapter in South America's difficult struggle to come to grips with the excesses of authoritarian rulers. Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil have all struggled in recent years to bring offenders to justice for crimes committed decades ago.

Bordaberry was elected democratically in 1971 but dissolved Congress and banned political parties a year later. Military leaders, who backed the move, formally seized power in 1973 and ousted Bordaberry three years later. The right-wing dictatorship lasted until 1985.

Just four months ago, Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, 83, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and human rights violations during his 1981-1985 rule. Alvarez was instrumental in the coup that ousted Bordaberry and he later assumed the presidency himself.

Bordaberry's democratic rise to power and totalitarian turn mirrors that of Peru's Alberto Fujimori two decades later. In 1990 Peruvians chose the former agricultural university rector to lead the country gripped by a bloody leftist insurgency and teetering economy.

Two years later, Fujimori took complete power when he dissolved the congress and assumed full legislative powers in a self coup now known as the "Autogolpe." His administration quickly became totalitarian in nature as he used the military to quell the internal conflict and an extensive spy agency to keep his grip on power.

Last April, Fujimori was convicted for ordering the security forces to carry out killings and kidnappings. The 25-year sentence was upheld by Peru's supreme court last month.

The case against Fujimori hinged on the actions of a paramilitary squad, the La Colina "Death Squad," who were acting under the president's authorization. The group was found responsible for a a series of murders, kidnappings and acts of violence and several of it's leaders have been convicted for those charges.

The convictions were connected with two incidents; the shooting to death of 15 people in a Barrios Altos tenement in 1991 and the "La Cantuta University massacre" where nine students and a professor from a local teachers' college were kidnapped and killed in 1992.

Still, Fujimori retained substantial popularity by the success in quelling the insurgency and stabilizing Peru's teetering economy. He was re-elected in 1996 but his government collapsed amid charges of abuse of power and corruption in 2000.

Of all the South American military dictators, none is more intimately associated with totalitarian abuses than Chile's Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. The Army Commander in Chief took control of the Andean nation on Sept. 11, 1973 by overthrowing the leftist government of Salvador Allende.

For the next 17 years Pinochet held power by creating a climate of fear and intimidation using raids, executions, "disappearances" and the arrest and torture of thousands of Chilean citizens.

Eventually, Pinochet ceded power over the government until democratic rule was restored in 1990. The new president, Patricio Aylwin, then ordered a truth commission to investigate the human rights abuses under the military dictatorship.

Pinochet died in 2006 at the age of 91 with several hundred pending criminal charges for human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement under his rule and afterward.

Today approximately 500 soldiers who served under him are awaiting trial for for crimes against humanity. Recently the Supreme Court vowed to continue investigating more than 1,300 unresolved cases from that era.

Argentina began grappling with the legacy of its decade under military dictatorship with the creation of a Truth Commission in the mid-1980s after the restoration of the democracy.

That report, released in 1984, found that an estimated 11,000 to 30,000 people were killed in a crackdown on leftists from 1973 to 1983 under the military in a period known today as the "dirty war."

The findings opened the doors to the trial of the military juntas of the dictatorship. A series of trials quickly followed seeing several major figures in the government convicted for dozens of murders, kidnappings and torture. Yet a sequence of amnesty law and presidential pardons freed those convicted and quenched further legal proceedings.

Argentina's Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the amnesty laws were unconstitutional. A year later, an ex-police chief accused of murder during military rule was brought to face charges in connection with abuses and convicted.

Paraguay's Gen. Alfredo Stroessner was the most tenacious of the regions dictators, holding power for 35 years until he was forced to flee to neighboring Brazil in 1989. At the time of his death in 2006 at the age of 93, Stroessner was being sought by Paraguayan officials on charges of murder.

Since much of the Paraguayan government was composed of former members of Stroessner's ruling coterie, no real effort to extradite the dictator was ever undertaken. The effort to reveal the extent of the abuses under the military dictatorship has been minimal.

Brazil has been similarly unwilling to unveil the abuses alleged to have occurred under the military regime that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. According to official estimates, around 50,000 persons were detained just in the first months of the dictatorship and roughly 10,000 went into exile at some point during that period.

In December, Brazil's current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed a decree authorizing the creation of a Truth Commission to investigate cases of torture and killings of political prisoners under the military dictatorship.

The action triggered an angry response from members of Lula's cabinet who were officials in the military government forcing the president to back off the proposal.

Bolivian Candidate Sentenced to Making Bricks

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:14:00 +0000

The candidacy of a Bolivian politician vying for the governorship of the La Paz department has been set aside for a more mundane task – brick making.

Felix Patzi, an Aymara Indian and former education minister, was arrested for drunk driving on Feb. 4 following a wake and sentenced under the country’s’ community justice system to make 1,000 adobe bricks as reparation.

Patzi was running for the governorship of La Paz in the April regional elections as the candidate of Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party.

Typically, the La Paz department, which is home of the nation’s capital, has been a MAS stronghold but the situation has cast the outcome of the April election into doubt and sharpened divisions within the country’s ruling party.

Initially, Patzi offered a verbal withdrawal of his candidacy but, citing the support of several highland peasant groups, he changed his mind. His candidacy was never revoked by the country's electoral court.

Now Patzi insists that he is a qualified candidate given the fulfillment of his sentence and has accused MAS of discriminating against him.

It is unclear if the community justice process supersedes the regular court process. Patzi was the first Bolivian convicted under the country's new drunk driving laws passed less than 24 hours before his arrest. His drivers license was suspended for life and the criminal case against him is still being investigated.

The controversy complicates an already tumultuous political battle for the highland department Last month the ex-governor of La Paz and leader of the opposition Plan Progreso political party, José Luis Paredes, fled the country following accusations of embezzlement.

Patzi’s primary rival in the race has been Simon Yampara, a candidate with the Moviemnto Sin Medio (MSM) party. Historically, MAS and MSM have been politically allied but recently tensions have emerged as Morales has worked to consolidate his control over the governing coalition.

Also running are Lino Villca, a former MAS senator and Julio Tito with Social Patriotic Alliance (ASP).

Colombian Flower Exporters Love Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Monday night saw the premiere of the new romantic film "Valentine's Day" at the famed Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood, California. While the stars of the ensemble cast were on display, so too were thousands of roses donated by Colombia.

According to Colombia's Association of Flower Exporters, more than 10,000 blooms were required to decorate the cinema for the event and another 5,000 roses were presented to fans that showed up.

Valentine's Day is traditionally one of the most important times of the year for the South American industry. According to the association, 80% of all the flowers currently imported to the United States are from Colombia - almost two thirds of all flowers sold in the country.

This year more than 500 million flowers will be shipped overseas to meet the demand generating 12% of annual sales for Colombian growers, the association reports.

The cut flower industry emerged in Colombia in the 1960 after a graduate student at Colorado State University identified the savanna around Colombia's capital of Bogota as one of the best places in the world to grow flowers for the US market. The region boasts regular 12-hour periods of daylight and temperatures averaging 57 degrees. Moreover, it's just a three-hour flight to the United States.

Over the following two decades, the industry grew steadily. By the end of the 1980s Colombian imports accounted for a full quarter of all flowers sold in the US. The real boom came in the early 1990s with the easing of tariffs as part of an initiative designed to help Andean countries fight the economic dependence on the drug trade.

Within a decade, Colombia's cut flower exports brought in more than $600 million annually and that total reached $1 billion in 2007.

But since then the industry has struggled. The association says that not only was last year's $1.03 billion a drop from the year before but that they expect the total to fall further in 2010.

The main culprit is the global economic downturn that has hit the industry in two ways; a drop in consumer spending has cut into sales and the weakening of the US dollar has slashed profit margins.

An unexpected winter freeze that struck in January has also affected the industry's bottom line (and led to higher flower prices in the US this year as well).

Even if Colombian flower growers get through the current tough times, clear sailing is by no means assured. The tariff exemptions that have allowed the Colombian growers to capitalize on the US market have expired and must be extended on a year by year basis.

Colombia and the US signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2006 that would make the exemptions permanent but awaits approval by the US congress. The passage of the agreement is by no means certain. US flower growers oppose a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia on the grounds it will give the South American country an even larger segment of the market.

Moreover, many Democrats have balked at the treaty citing lack of union rights in Colombia. The flower industry in Colombia has been particularly slow to incorporate labor organizations, critics say.

Endangered Galapagos Seals Migrate to Peru

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:51:00 +0000

A colony of approximately three dozen fur seals have left their home haunts in the Galápagos archipelago off Ecuador and settled on tiny Foca Island off Peru's northern coast - more than 1,500 away.

The species, Arctocephalus galapagoensis, breeds exclusively on the Galápagos islands as well as the nearby Isla del Plata. According to the Lima-based Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) individual animals sometimes stray away from the islands but this is the first time such a large group of this particular species has migrated this far.

ORCA says that temperature changes in the Pacific prompted the sea lions to move southward. Typically the sea temperature around the Galápagos islands (about 1,000 kilometers west of continental Ecuador) averages around 25 degrees Celsius. But the waters off northern Peru have now heated up to that range as well.

Historically, the influence of the Humboldt Current flowing northward from Antarctica has kept the waters off Peru significantly cooler than those off the coast of Ecuador - usually about 17 degrees Celsius or so. Due to the effects of climate change or El Niño - the sea temperatures off northern Peru have now warmed to about 23 degrees Celsius.

The migration comes at a dangerous time for the unique species. The population of the Galápagos fur seals is estimated at about 40,000 but a decline of 50% over the last 30 years has led them to be classified as endangered. Moreover, El Niño events like the one currently occuring in the Pacific often leads to die offs and a cessation of reproduction.

Other seal species - such as the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) and the South American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) - are quite common off the coast of Peru. In fact, a colony of 8,000 sea lions lives on desert islands in the bay of Lima.

Further south, the Ballestas Islands in the National Reserve of Paracas off the Southern Peruvian coast are home to huge colonies of seals, sea lions and other wildlife.

South American Presidential Approval Ratings

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:13:00 +0000

The popularity ratings for presidents across South America have altered significantly in recent months as elections have altered the political landscape in several countries and political pressures are precipitating changes in others.

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is enjoying overwhelming popularity as his second and last term in office comes to a close. An election is set for October and Lula's chief-of-staff and top adviser Dilma Rousseff leads Social Democratic Party presidential candidate Jose Serra in polls by only 5.4 percentage points.

• The situation is much the same in Chile as Michelle Bachelet enjoys stellar approval ratings while she puts the finishing touches on her term in office (she barred by law from a second term). On January 17, Sebastián Piñera won Chile's presidential election with 52% of the vote and he will take office on March 11.

• In Uruguay, outgoing president Tabare Vazquez is also enjoying a late-term boost in popularity. He is slated to step down in March to make way for José Mujica, a former left-wing guerrilla fighter who won the presidency last November with 52.39 per cent of the vote.

• The popularity poll have nots are led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who has suffered a severe dip in his once-soaring ratings as his country has been beset with energy shortages and street protests linked to his increasingly autocratic rule.

• Chavez's erstwhile political ally, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, is facing similar pressures after starting the year with a downturn in his popularity ratings as well. After taking office in 2007 but engineered a constitutional change that called for a presidential election last year which he won handily. According to the new law, he can run again in 2013 if he chooses.

• Political turmoil in Peru and Argentina have similarly walloped the popularity ratings of presidents Alan Garcia and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner respectively.

• The situation couldn't be more different in Bolivia where staunch leftist Evo Morales is still enjoying the goodwill from his re-election last month where he garnered a whopping 63 percent of the vote. While he has already served one four-year term, term limits restrict him to just one more five-year term although many believe he will make an attempt to change the law to run again.

• Colombia's Alvaro Uribe has seen his stock plummet from the ratified stature of just a year ago due to turmoil in his government. He is seeking changes in his country's election laws to allow him to run for a third term in the May presidential elections. The proposal was recently dealt a legal setback but a final ruling may not be made until April.

• In Paraguay, president Fernando Lugo is holding steady in the polls.

• Presidential popularity figures further afield in Latin America include: Panama's Ricardo Martinelli at 91%, El Salvador's Mauricio Fuenes at 88%, Mexico's Felipe Calderon at 55%, Guatemala's Alvaro Colom at 46%, Costa Rica's Oscar Arias at 44% and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua at 26%. In Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa was sworn in last month after winning that country's controversial presidential election.

Ecuador's Dangerous Drug Dilemma

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:32:00 +0000

Historically, security concerns about Ecuador have been eclipsed by neighboring Colombia and Peru. That could be changing as a series of reports critical of the tiny Andean nation's growing problems of lawlessness, corruption and human rights abuses have emerged over the past few months.

The cultivation of coca remains the headache of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia but, increasingly, Ecuador is becoming a site for cocaine production, trafficking and the shadowy financial system that services the industry.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "as much as 200 tons, or one-third of the cocaine produced in Colombia, may be transiting through Ecuador, four times the estimated percentage a decade ago."

The UNODC reports that more than 25,000 kg of cocaine was seized in Ecuador in 2007 - more than 400 percent more than five years prior and outstripping every South American country save Colombia and Venezuela.

And there is evidence that the country is increasing its profile as a producer of the drug as well. A drug lab with the capability of cranking out 10 tons of cocaine a month was discovered in town of Lomas de Sargentillo last year.

Even more troubling, Ecuador has also become a hub for transnational criminal groups, according to the Financial Action Task Force - the inter-governmental body representing 33 countries and territories and 2 regional organizations.

The FATF reports that Ecuador has become a key business hub for Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers as well as Chinese and African human traffickers. The group noted that Ecuador had failed to comply with 48 of its 49 recommendations on money laundering and terrorist financing in 2007.

The group is expected to ask for Ecuador to be included on its high-risk jurisdiction list later this month.

These trends have occurred as Ecuador has joined a growing number of South American countries loosening draconian drug laws enacted at the behest of US policies.

For years, US anti-drug funding dollars carried demands that participating nations beef up their domestic drug laws. The result was a spike in prison populations as small-time users were incarcerated for minimal possession charges.

Reform efforts that loosen the penalties associated with individual drug users have swept the region and include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Ecuador. The lack of opposition by the Obama administration has been interpreted as a tacit approval of the change.

President Raphael Correa brought this approach to Ecuador in 2008 when he ordered Ecuador's parliament to pardon about 2,000 small-time couriers or "drug mules" being held in the nation's prisons.

"These people are not criminals," he said. "They are single mothers or unemployed people who are desperate to feed their families."

The move also dovetailed with his stated opposition to US involvement in Ecuador and Latin America. A stance he backed up with the termination of Ecuador’s lease with the US army for the use of the Manta air base - the center for anti-drug surveillance aircraft in the region.

Flights out of Manta were ceased last June and begun, somewhat controversially, out of Colombian bases.

Colombia's Invests in Infrastructure

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:49:00 +0000

Last month, Colombia launched the ambitious $2.6-billion, 1,000-kilometer Ruta del Sol highway project that will connect the capital of Bogota with the country's Caribbean Coast. It's the largest single highway project ever undertaken in the country and one of the biggest infrastructure efforts in South America.

Five years ago, Colombia launched the largest infrastructure overhaul in the country's history - Plan 2500. The $770 million effort has been aimed at the construction and upgrade of more than 3,200 kilometers of roadway.

Colombia's problem has been the inequality between the nation's primary method of transportation and the suitability of the routes it used. Approximately 70 percent of the nation's cargo is transported by truck but, as of 2007, less than 15 percent of the nation's almost 150,000 kilometers of roads were paved. Just 400 kilometers of multiple-lane paved highway existed at all.

The 2,500 infrastructure initiative was ignited partly by the promise of a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Colombian officials cited it as a factor in the decision to move forward with the Ruta del Sol project. Although signed in 2006, that treaty still awaits approval by the US Congress and the likelihood of that occurring in this calendar year are slim.

The route is also critically important for Colombia to capitalize on the opportunity represented by the ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal. Although the country is the world's fifth-largest exporter of steam coal, it is the only producing country unable to sell into Asia due to high freight costs.

The increased scrutiny on carbon emissions has cut heavily into the European and the U.S. markets. The expanded canal is expected to facilitate exports from Colombia's Caribbean coast, where the bulk of the country's coal supplies are loaded for shipment abroad.

Santa Marta, the terminus of the Ruta del Sol road project, is the largest port on Colombia's Caribbean coast and handles more than half of the country's coal exports. That's expected to increase with the completion of a $300 million upgrade and other improvements which will more than triple the capacity of the port.

Chile's Granny Metallica Rocks Out in Santiago

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:47:00 +0000

Graciela Mora is a typical septuagenarian from Santiago, Chile in just about every respect but one - she's a die-hard heavy metal fan.

The 76-year-old heavy metal fan who is known as "Granny Metallica" recently got her wish to see her favorite band Metallica who played at Santiago's Club Hípico last weekend.

Mora said she has been a fan of rock music for more than 40 years but the melodies in Metallica's songs are what makes them stand out for her.

"I'm from the age of Mambo but when I heard Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and all that kind of music I gave it a shot and liked it," she said.

Metallica's current tour is in support the bands ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, which was released in late 2008. Metalheads across Latin America were overjoyed the band made it to the region after the 2003 tour was canceled due to "exhaustion."

More than 54,000 fans showed up for the Santiago concert. Mora attended the show with her 16-year-old grandson but she was quick to note that she was the first Metallica fan in the family.

"I'm the one that brought him [to the show]," she insisted. "He didn't bring me."

While Mora may have been the oldest fan in the audience last weekend she isn't the oldest person known to have attended a Metallica show. Last year 85-year-old Margaret Priebe attended one of the band's show in Tampa, Florida.

Flooding in Peru and Bolivia

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:56:00 +0000

Over the past two weeks the highlands of Peru and Bolivia have been inundated with rainfall causing extensive flooding and numerous mudslides throughout the region. The result has been widespread devastation to crops and livestock as well as destruction to homes, roads and communication lines.

In Peru, more than 38,000 people have been affected and more than 20 people have died. Five others remain missing. In Bolivia the disaster has affected an estimated 24,000 families thus far, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in five provinces.

January and February are the typical rainy season in the Andean highlands but the storms this year have been particularly intense. According to Peru's national weather agency, Senamhi, rainfalls in some areas have been 70% more than normal.

The agency says the weather patterns are linked to the El Nino weather phenomena. Similar destruction occurred in the same areas just two years ago but were credited with the La Nina phenomena.

The bulk of the media attention has focused on the 3,500 or so tourists who were stranded at Aguas Calientes when the floodwaters of the Urubamba River destroyed the railway line to Cusco. The train is the only way to access the remote town (also known as Machu Picchu Village).

A fleet of 12 helicopters flew for four days carrying all of the tourists back to Cusco ferrying all of them out by last Friday.

Machu Picchu itself escaped harm from the inundation, a fact attributed to the drainage system for the ridgetop citadel built by the Incan engineers. Visits to the site, the most popular tourist attraction on the South American continent, will now be curtailed until the rail line is repaired, at least two months according to local officials.

Former Beauty Queen Seeks Bolivian Governorship

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:30:00 +0000

In his four years as president of Bolivia, Evo Morales has made a habit of doing things his own way but his decision to back a 25-year-old former model in a key regional election has raised eyebrows.

Jessica Jordan was chosen as Miss Boliva in 2006 and represented the country in the 56th Miss Universe pageant held in Mexico City which was won by Riyo Mori of Japan. Jordan was also chosen as the International Queen of Coffee in 2008.

Recently, Morales selected the one time business student as the candidate of his political party for the governorship of the Beni province. Jordan is slated to face two former governors of the department, Carlos Navia and Erwin Rometo, in the April 4 contest.

Jordan was born on May 6, 1984 in England. Her father is British and her mother is Bolivian. Until recently she lived primarily in Brazil. That has raised questions to her eligibility on grounds of nationality and age.

Morales defended the decision to back Jordan noting that "the beautiful also have the right to be candidates" and denounced criticisms of her as "sexist."

She has shrugged off the controversy and made numerous public appearances as part of relief efforts for indigenous people affected by widespread flooding in the region.

The decision to back such an unusual but highly visible candidate is linked to Morale's intention f consolidating power in Bolivia following his overwhelming re-election victory last year. The key opposition to his Movement toward Socialism party (often known by it's Spanish-language acronym, MAS) has been in the eastern Amazonian provinces including Beni.

Morales was able to counter a constitutional challenge to his government in 2008 initiated by the leaders of these departmental governments. Having his own candidates in office would serve to further diminish disruption to his political intentions.

Panama Canal Third Lane Expansion

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:54:00 +0000

The Panama Canal is currently undergoing a massive $5.2 billion expansion that is expected to more than double the capacity of the historic waterway.

The Panama Canal Authority, the quasi-governmental body that oversees the waterway, says the project is on track to be completed in 2014, just in time for the canal's centenary anniversary.

The upgrade includes the construction of new locks on both sides of the isthmus that will allow the passage of a new generation of shipping vessels that are too large for the waterway's existing locks. The massive post-Panamax-sized ships carry up to 12,600 cargo containers, almost three times the current number.

Last year an international consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, won the $3.12 billion contract to design and build the revolutionary new locks that the project requires.

Although preparatory work for the new locks has begun, the bulk of the effort for the past two years has focused on the dry excavation required for a 6.1-kilometer (3.8-mile) access channel linking new Pacific locks to the canal’s Gaillard Cut.

The completion of the project is expected to transform shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific. According to the Economist, there are 140 shipping routes from East Asia and the US Eastern seaboard that utilize the Panama Canal.

With the ability to transit the larger post-Panamax vessels, that's only expected to increase. The prospect has ignited a scramble of US port upgrades that shows little sign of stopping.

Yet the expansion will also provide even more markets for South American commodity exports to Asia - particularly from the Atlantic side of the continent. And Pacific Coast countries are already looking for ways to capitalize on the effort.

Peru, for example, could benefit from increased transports of Liquefied Natural Gas through the waterway. Colombia is also looking at increasing coal exports to China by using Caribbean ports.

Venezuela's Deepening Energy Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:16:00 +0000

An energy crisis in Venezuela precipitated by El Nino weather patterns is creating social turmoil and the threat of complete collapse in the country’s electricity system if not addressed in the next several weeks.

Months of drought have led to drastic drops in water levels at the 10,200 MW Guri Dam on the Caroni River that supplies about approximately 73 percent of Venezuela’s power needs. The water levels in Lago Guri, the plant's reservoir, have fallen to just barely more than half the regular capacity, hobbling power production.

Little relief is expected until the country’s rainy season begins in May.

To counter the shortfall, the government imposed a sweeping electricity rationing across the nation in an effort to reduce consumption 20 percent and take the pressure off the strained generation system.

The situation echos Brazil's 2001-2002 energy crisis that led to economic turmoil and, subsequently, a political backlash against the government in power. The blackouts were cited by several observers as a key reason for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's victory in the 2002 presidential elections.

The forced blackouts have affected millions of residential users as well as major industrial consumers. The country's major aluminum smelters and steel mill were subject to drastic cuts and may be shuttered completely to ease strain on the system, officials said.

It hasn’t gone as planned. Planned four-hour blackouts in Caracas were rescinded after a single day due to mass chaos in the capitol city – particularly with traffic. A new plan to resume the outages is slated to be announced next week.

The government also loosened rationing efforts in the western Merida state following street protests. Last week, approximately 5,000 people marched against cutbacks in the region that slashed power availability by 35 percent.

Despite the setbacks, governmental officials insist nationwide rationing will resume and continue at least till May when the rainy season arrives.

Venezuela’s fiery head of state Hugo Chavez laid the blame for the crisis at the feet of the country’s “energy wasting rich” who were using power in a proliferate manner. Critics counter that the government has ignored investments needed to expand power production and satisfy rising consumption.

The government claims to have invested $8 billion in new energy sources since 2001 and brought more than 4,600 MW online.

Planta Centro, Venezuela's largest fossil-fueled power plant is operating at a fraction of its 2,000 MW capacity. Venezuelan officials said the plant generated just 273 MW last week and hasn’t produced more than 520 MW in three months.

The government has repeatedly pushed back a planned $400 million overhaul to the facility but allocated just $3.2 million to the effort last year. An overhaul of one unit was started in 2003 and has yet to be completed.

The situation is very similar in Ecuador where an energy rationing scheme was ended this week. Rolling blackouts were initiated in November after water levels slashed the power output of the Paute hydroelectric facility – the principal source of the nations’ electricity needs.

According to officials, the power rationing has resulted in $250 million in losses to the commercial sector.

Peru and Chile Tensions Highlight Regional Arms Race

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:55:00 +0000

Peru and Chile have never gotten along particularly well. Since the War in the Pacific almost a century and a half ago, the two Andean nations have had strained relationships. And tensions have increased recently following news of Chile’s $270 million purchase of 18 second-hand F-16 aircraft from Holland.

When Chile’s Air Force Chief Ricardo Ortega, was quoted saying that the purchase gave the country the ability to “hit hard” - many to the north took the comment to mean them in particular.

In the wake of the incident, Peruvian officials made a show of downplaying concern about the possible threat and insisted they would not be baited to spend more on their own military budget as a result.

“Peru will not get into an arms race because that means replacing food for bullets, and we won't do that,” said Prime Minister Javier Velasquez Quesquen.

The posturing doesn't quite fit the facts since Chile’s growing military budget has been a concern by Peru's government for some time. Between 2006 and 2008, the annual expenditure on military acquisitions jumped almost 32 percent to $5 billion - more than 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

And while Peru’s entire military budget for 2008 was $930 million, it represented an increase of more than 50 percent from the year prior but still just 1.2 percent of GDP. An a large portion of the expense was to strengthen the country's borders.

The situation seems less worrying when taken in a regional context, where accelerated military spending has become part of the norm - an alarming trend for an entirely different set of reasons.

According to a story earlier this month in the Financial Times, between 2003 and 2008 regional weapons sales surged by more than a third to reach $39.6 billion. Other estimates put total regional military spending as high as $47 billion.

Unsurprisingly, Brazil led the way in spending, shelling out $24.6 billion in 2008, more than double the $13.2 billion spent in 2006.

The country that has drawn the most international concern in this particular arena has been Venezuela which paid out $5 billion in 2008 for arms. Despite a US ban on arms sales to the nation, President Hugo Chavez has overseen the acquisition of a host of armaments from Russia in recent years that has included tanks, fighter aircraft and thousands upon thousands of AK-103 assault rifles.

According to the Associated Press, Venezuela spent $71 million between 2002 and 2004. That total ballooned to approximately $4 billion between 2005 and 2007. Last year, Russia reportedly opened a $2.2 billion line of credit to the country to acquire even more weapons.

Machu Picchu Resort Town Flooded

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:33:00 +0000

Aguas Calientes is the tourist town on the Urubamba River that serves as the gateway to Peru's famed "lost city of the Incas," Machu Picchu. Currently spring rains have effectively stranded almost 2,000 tourists in the town (which is also known as (Machu Picchu Pueblo village).

The government declared an 60-day state of emergency in the area on Monday and has evacuated 60 tourists. The rains have triggered as many as 40 landslides, at least one of which has blocked the railway line that is the only access between the town and the rest of Peru.

The most recent reports indicated that 8 local residents have been killed and at least one foreign tourist (an Argentinean).

Most of Southern Peru has been inundated by abnormally heavy rains in recent weeks and as many as 3,000 people have had their homes destroyed by floods and landslides. The deluge has put a significant number of Incan ruins at risk, particularly those near Cusco in the Sacred Valley. Thus far, officials at Machu Picchu Park say the famous ruins are not in danger.

The current rains are uncommonly heavy but hardly unprecedented. A similar deluge occurred in 2004 that also shut down the rail link to Aguas Calientes and stranded thousands of tourists forcing the government to evacuate them with helicopters. At least 11 local residents died in mudslides caused by the deluge that year.

Since that time, Aguas Calientes has become more susceptible to the dangers of flooding due to expansion. The town is located on a narrow strip of the river valley yet a host of new hotels and roadway enlargements have been built over the past several years to keep up with the growing number of tourists to the famed ruins.

Photo via @lynnmora

Peru's Chicha Music (Peruvian Cumbia)

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Chicha is one of Peru's distinctive musical traditions that, despite their widespread popularity in the Andean country, are almost completely unknown beyond its borders.

Chicha is considered a variant of Cumbia music which developed on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. For many Andean countries, cumbia was more popular than the better known Brazilian salsas.

The first chicha hit, and the song from which the movement has taken its name, was La Chichera ( The Chicha Seller) by Los Demonios de Mantaro (The Devils of Mantaro), who hailed from the central highlands of Junin. Chicha is a very common fermented maize beer in Peru and Chicha Morada is an ubiquitous non-alcoholic drink derived from purple corn.

Stylewise, Chicha represented a grab bag of whatever was handy and struck the fancy of the musicians: pentatonic scales of Andean melodies, some Cuban guajiras, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, wah-wah pedals, farfisa organs and moog synthesizers.

In 2007, the musical style garnered a bit of attention with the release of Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru on the Barbes Records label. The collection is distinctive due to it's respect for the historical sweep and eclectic tendencies of the genre.

The music emerged as part of a massive social upheaval in Peru during the 1960s. The decade saw the start of a massive migration of native Peruvians from the remote highlands to shantytowns around cities such as Arequipa and Lima. The geographic transition created a mix of traditional and current music styles creating something new.

But the music also encompassed the social changes in the oil-boom Amazon. The rapid urbanization of the region due to the influx of investments created an ideal artistic situation in Peru's northern jungle cities of Pucallpa, Moyobamba, and Iquitos.

As the countries population gravitated toward Lima during the 70s and 80s so did Chicha music and it became much more integrated with more modern accouterments such as cheap keyboards and drum machines. Still the integrity of the musical style has prevaled and the so-called Peruvian Cumbia remains as vibrant musical force.

Who REALLY discovered Machu Picchu?

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:31:00 +0000

The American explorer Hiram Bingham III is renowned for finding Peru’s mysterious “lost city of the Incas” Machu Picchu during an expedition in 1911. But, according to new research, that claim to fame may have been eclipsed by an unscrupulous German adventurer four decades prior.

Augusto R. Berns, a businessman who traded in wood and gold, may have found the site first - reaching it as early as 1867 - according to a multi-national team of experts. The group has been following the research of Paolo Greer, a retired Alaska oil pipeline foreman, who has investigated the claim for almost 30 years.

While Bingham may not have been the first westerner to find the ruins, his discovery was what revealed Machu Picchu to the world at large. He was led to the site by a local farmer and today tour guides carefully word how they describe Bingham’s feat to allow for the fact that local natives may have known where the citadel was located all along.

Bingham traveled as a researcher for Yale University but, according to the researchers, Berns’ motivation was profit. Records indicate the German set up a company in 1887 to loot the site and even purchased property near the ruins to facilitate the plan. Berns even obtained a letter of cooperation with the Peru’s government to undertake the scheme.

Investigators are now looking at how many items Berns may have taken from the site and where they are now.

The discovery comes as Peru is in the middle of a contentious battle to recover thousands of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu by Bingham during his numerous expeditions to the site in the 1910’s. The pieces are currently being held at Yale's Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn.

Peruvian airlines suspend domestic flights

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:02:00 +0000

The soaring price of oil has slammed the airline industry worldwide and, this week, the problem arrived in Peru.

Two of the country’s airlines, Aerocondor and Star Peru, suspended domestic flights to six destinations - Tacna, Arequipa, Juliaca, Piura, Chiclayo and Trujillo. Another airline, Lan Peru, will continue to serve the routes.

None of the airlines altered flights to the country’s most popular destination city, Cusco, which is the gateway to Machu Picchu.

Officials with both airlines said rising costs of fuel has made the lesser-used routes unprofitable even with substantial increases in the price of fares. Airfaires across Peru rose 10 percent the last week of May due to the higher cost of fuel.

Although the airlines insisted the suspension is temporary “until oil prices stabilize” although there is little reason to expect the situation to change soon. Oil prices surged to record levels days after the announcement and many analysts predicting the increases will continue.

In response to the cancellations, Peru’s president Alan Garcia denied that there was a crisis in the country’s airline industry and publicly dismissed suggestions that fuel costs be subsidized by the government.

The most pressing immediate concern will be the affect to Peru’s tourism industry. Peru’s consumer protection agency, INDECOPI, says it is reviewing the airlines actions for possible violations.

According to Peru’s national chamber of tourism, Canatur, the loss of the flights could affect as much as 70 percent of the visitors to the county during the peak season for visitors. Tour agencies said that the flight cancellations have already begun to affect their business. Many are having to bear the cost of finding new flights for previously purchased tour packets.

Still, government officials remained optimistic, noting that ticket sales for domestic flights are up 50 percent this year.

Remembering the Ancash Earthquake of 1970

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 31, 1970, a 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Central Peru. Within minutes, tens of thousands were killed and several million left homeless.

The Ancash earthquake killed more than 66,000 people and left more than 150,000 injured. Half-a-million people were left homeless and at least 4 million Peruvians were affected by the devastation.

The area near the Central highland town of Huaraz was hardest hit. Today this city of 100,000 is the center for the booming tourist trade in Central Peru – a crossroads for hikers and a camper exploring the country’s famed Cordella Blanca.

But the disaster that struck here almost three decades ago is still vividly remembered. In 2000, Peru designated May 31 as Natural Disaster Education and Reflection Day, in memory of the deadliest seismic disaster in the history of Latin America.

The quake struck at 3:23 p.m. and in the following 45 seconds shook an area larger than Belgium and the Netherlands combined. The impact of the temblor was massive across the country but nowhere was its devastation felt more than in the Andean valley known as the Callejón de Huaylas.

The earthquake caused a massive avalanche on the northern slope of Mount Huascarán. A huge mass of glacial ice and rock about 3,000 feet wide and one mile long slid down the valley at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Within five minutes the towns of towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca were simply covered in more than 80 million cubic meters of material.

In Yungay, more than 25,000 people perished. Only about 100 people survived simply because they happened to be at various spots outside of the landslide’s reach. After the disaster the Peruvian government forbade any excavation in the area, declaring it a national cemetery.

The ghosts of Peru's violent past return

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:36:00 +0000

This month, officials announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the victims of a massacre carried out by the military in the early 1980s - one of the early atrocities carried out during Peru’s violent two-decade struggle against a Maoist insurgency.

And authorities are concerned with reports of increased activity on the part of the remaining rebels who live in the high jungle and who are being funded by the illicit drug trade.

According to the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the conflict claimed almost 70,000 lives between 1980 and 2000. More than half of the deaths were attributed to the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (or Shining Path) and a handful of smaller groups that emulated them.

But the remainder of the deaths and human rights abuses were attributable to the Peruvian authorities – most notably the military charged with cracking down on the violence.

Earlier this month, forensic scientists recovered the bodies of at least 60 people - including 15 children – near the village of Putis in the Southern highlands. At least 120 people are believed to have been slaughtered on December 13, 1984 by the Peruvian military who suspected them of collaborating with the insurgents. At least four other grave sites in the village have yet to be excavated.

According to the truth commission there are more than 4,000 mass graves hidden in different parts of the country. Over the past decade 505 bodies have been retrieved from mass graves in Peru, of which 269 have been identified, according to figures from the prosecutor's office.

The news comes as officials say attacks by the remnants of the insurgent force are increasing. Although only several hundred Sendero Luminoso loyalists remain out of the estimated 10,000 who belonged to the group at its peak, they have been well funded by the illicit drug trade and well protected in the remote Andean jungles.

Officials now say the group carries out an attack each week in the regions they control – usually against local authorities. Since 2005, at least 40 police officers have died in the ambushes. Last November a group of five dozen insurgents destroyed a police station and killed its commander in the mountain town of Ocobamba.

Indiana Jones and the Problem of Historical Inaccuracies

noreply@blogger.com (kleph) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Perhaps the last place one would search for historical accuracy is in a summer Hollywood blockbuster but the sheer popularity of the Indiana Jones franchise means that what fables are contained in its plot are bound to have a huge impact on peoples perception of the world.

That’s a key concern for many Peruvians who fear misrepresentations of their culture and history in the newest film in the franchise, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Crystal Skull.

Peru has long had a special place in the archeologist's fictional world since a pair of Peruvian porters led the hero to the temple in the prelude of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, many say Indiana Jones was subtly inspired by real-life explorer Gene Savoy who spent much of his life searching for the many “lost cities” of the Incas.

Yet, the Indiana Jones franchise has often played fast and loose with the reality of Peruvian history, culture and tradition and the latest film is no exception. While many may dismiss the liberties as ‘it’s only a movie’ many Peruvians are concerned about the effect of the film given broad misconceptions about their country that already exist due to widespread inaccuracies.

"Even if it is fiction there are many incorrect facts," said Historian Manuel Burga, the former head of the University of San Marcos in Lima. "This is going to be damaging to many people who do not know our country, because it shows a Peruvian landscape that is not real.”

Most damaging is a broad lack of distinction between the Mayan cultures of central Mexico and the Inca cultures of Andean South America. These two empires are separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years but the film constantly portrays them as near equivalents.

This is reinforced by howlers such as the Jones’ impossible claim he learned to speak the Peruvian native tongue of Quechua in Mexico in the 1910s. Interesting feat since the language is isolated to the Andean highlands.

The film also makes gross geographic liberties such as placing the Nazca Lines located on the Peruvian Pacific Coast near the mountain city of Cusco several hundred miles away in reality.

Worst of all, the film subtly reinvigorates the crackpot theories of Erich von Daniken whose bestselling book “Chariots of the Gods” has often been unquestionably cited as a source despite it’s woeful lack of scientific basis.