Category: Peru

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who is in exile in Japan, received a new identification card and may return to the country to contend for the presidency in next year´s election. Peru has been seeking Fujimori´s extradition on charges of embezzlement and involvement in the murder of 25 civilians in 1991 and 1992 when he was in power. Fujimori has said the efforts to arrest him amount to political persecution.

Seventy percent of the 869 workers at Shougang Hierro Peru, Peru’s only iron miner, went on strike Monday, their third in 12 months, to push for a pay raise. The strike is the second to hit Peru’s mining industry in a month. Workers walked off the job for eight days in June at Peru’s biggest zinc and lead miner Volcan Compania Minera.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peru’s Economic Minister, threw his hat in the ring to take over the top spot at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) when its current president, Enrique Iglesias, steps down in September. Iglesias has occupied the position for 17 years. Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo said Kuczynski would not immediately resign his post.

Peru’s proposal to pay back early as much as $2 billion of debt owed to the Paris Club was accepted by a majority of the group’s creditor nations. Peru will cut its borrowing costs by paying down the debt early since the government’s bond yields today are lower than the interest rate it is paying on the Paris Club debt, Economy Minister Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski said last week. Peru will sell bonds in international and domestic markets to finance the payment.

Peru’s economy grew 6.4 percent year-on-year in April. Higher output of natural gas, chemicals, paper and cotton outpaced declines in copper and gold. Manufacturing rose 7 percent led by a 57 percent surge in chemicals. The Central Bank revised its growth forecast for 2005 to 5 percent from 4.5 percent. The economy grew 5.2 percent in the 12 months through April, compared with 4.9 percent through March.

Workers at Volcan Compañia Minera, Peru’s biggest zinc and lead miner, ended an eight-day strike Friday after the company granted each a one-time $300 bonus. About 2,200 workers returned to work at the Cerro de Pasco and Yauli mines in the central Andes after beginning a strike to demand 8 percent of the company’s 2004 earnings. The two mines affected by the strike, which account for three quarters of Volcan’s output, were operating at 50 percent capacity during the strike.

Peru’s economy grew 4.0 percent year-on-year in March, the slowest pace in five months and down from 6.8 percent in February, as copper output fell at the country’s two largest mines. The Central Bank estimates the economy will expand 4.5 percent in 2005.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who has been living in exile in Japan since 2000, said he is working to return to Peru and wants to run in the country’s presidential election next year. Fujimori is wanted in Peru for alleged crimes committed during his presidency, including involvement in the military’s killing of civilians and misappropriation of public funds. In February, Peru’s constitutional court upheld the Peruvian parliament’s 2001 resolution to ban Fujimori from public office for 10 years.