Peruvia

• BNAmericas reports that the Ministry of Energy and Mines "plans to complete a total of 127 rural electrification projects valued at 772mn soles (US$237mn) by the end of 2006," according to José Eslava Arnao, the ministry's executive director of projects. NOTE: "By end-2006 we will have completed 10,890km of transmission lines, bringing electricity to 1.3 million people in 259,000 homes across 3,875 communities."
• BNAmericas reports that local mayors in northern Piura "have agreed to restart talks with Britain's Monterrico Metals as long as the junior suspends exploration at its Río Blanco copper project." NOTE: "The group of mayors, part of an association of mayors of the ‘northern border,’ are also demanding the immediate halt of the government's ‘repressive actions’ and persecution of local authorities, demonstrators and local people, congress said in a statement." ALSO: "Locals in the provinces of Ayabaca and Huancabamba in Piura and Jaén and San Ignacio in Cajamarca have agreed to particpate in talks to find solutions to the conflict with Monterrico local subsidiary Majaz. Protests erupted at the end of July at Río Blanco close to the border with Ecuador causing many injuries and one death. Feasibility drilling was suspended but restarted August 13-14."
• BNAmericas reports that "Peru's hydrocarbons reserves rose to a record one billion barrels of oil equivalent at end-December 2004," according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines’ Gustavo Navarro Valdivia. "The increase is largely due to gas reserves in the Camisea gas field and to new discoveries on blocks Z-2B and 39, the statement said. At end-2004 the country's proven gas reserves were 11.5 trillion cubic feet, while oil reserves were approximately 400 million barrels (Mb), down from some 800Mb in the 1980s.
• BNAmericas (Patrick Shell) reports that the "Nueva Cajamarca municipality in Peru's San Martín department will accept technical proposals up to September 2 for its potable water service operation concession," according to mayor James Carranza told BNamericas. NOTE: "Lima-based Relima and Spain's Cobra are among those preparing proposals, the mayor said."
• The Associated Press reports that the Farmacias Similares chain in eight years, "has grown from a single store in Mexico City to 3,239 across Mexico and is spreading throughout Central America as well as Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. A pharmacy opened in Lima on July 29." NOTE: The Mexican founder of the company, "a recovering alcoholic and self-professed womanizer wants to translate his popularity into a run for president, though the law is against him, as is most conventional wisdom."
• Dow Jones (Robert Kozak) reports that AFP UnionVida, owned by Grupo Santander Central Hispano, on Thursday "became the last of the private pension funds operating in Peru to lower its commission fee. The company said it will lower the commission fee to 1.94% from the current rate of 2.27%. It added that if a fund holder promises to leave the cash in the fund for a determined period of time that commission rate would fall even lower." CITED: AFP UnionVida's director of marketing and services, Francisco Villa.
• Korea’s Chosun reports that Korea has designated China as a ‘market economy.’ "Beijing has won market economy status from 40 individual countries including 10 ASEAN members, Australia and Peru."

People:

• The Baltimore Sun reports on "the complex and confusing world of modern medicine, [where] many people need a helping hand, and that's where the navigator comes in." Featured is Dr. Elmer Huerta, a Peruvian oncologist who established a cancer ‘preventorium’ at Washington Hospital Center. When in Peru, "he was disturbed by seeing too many patients coming in too late for treatment of cancer that might have been prevented. Some people had put ‘yerba buena,’ or good herb, on the huge tumors that were deforming their bodies in the belief it would dissolve the cancer."
• The Minsk News reports that the Sofia Koutsovitis Group will perform Friday, September 2, at Satalla. Koutsovitis’ band includes Peruvian Jorge Roeder on the bass who has "worked in a variety of settings ranging from Classical, as assistant principal bassist of the Lima Philharmonic at age 21, to folkloric music and jazz (with jazz legend Roy Haynes, among others)."
• The Austin American Statemen, the Dallas Morning News, and the Daily Texan, a university paper, all run an opinion piece by Ana Lucia Hurtado on the University of Texas’ Intellectual Entrepreneurship Internship. Through the program, "I was given the rare chance to own my education… Because of overwhelming turmoil caused by the Shining Path Maoist guerrillas, my parents left my home country, Peru, when I was only 4 years old. Although a painful sacrifice, my parents wanted their three daughters to succeed and prosper in this land of opportunity’."

Other:

• Goal.com reports that Aston Villa’s Nolberto Solano "will have to serve a three match suspension after losing his appeal against the red card he received against Portsmouth on Tuesday."
• Seeing Red In Peru: North Korea’s KCNA reports that "Alberto Moreno, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru ‘Red Motherland’, noted that the world revolutionaries remember the precious exploits performed by Kim Il Sung and strive hard to learn from the Songun politics of Kim Jong Il." NOTE: "The chairman of the Peruvian National Independent Movement for the Free Vote Union noted at a seminar that Korean socialism is widely known to the world as a powerful socialist nation of Juche."
• The Reading Evening Post reports on David Barnes from Central Reading who is "hoping to bring some festive cheer to children in the Amazon as part of his work with Carey Baptist Church. He is soon heading off to Aysana, a village of around 120 people, about five hours down river from Iquitos in Peru, armed with shoeboxes packed with donated Yuletide gifts for the children."
• BPSports (Shawn Hendricks) reports on a group of Southern Baptist missionaries from Rapid Entry Advance Plan (REAP) North Peru, based in Lima who "helped lead more than 200 villagers to Christ by using soccer as a way to introduce them to the Gospel. … Following one game, an entire team of Peruvian village players prayed to accept Christ as Savior and Lord."
  

TANS CRASH
LATE UPDATE: Reuters (Mariana Bazo) is reporting that "a 28-year-old woman ... believed killed in Peru crash found alive: her name was not released, she was found by her husband in a hospital in Pucallpa. … The woman has been transferred to Lima, where she was in serious condition and on a ventilator. Her son, who was traveling with her, was reported to have undergone surgery in the capital." NOTE: "Only six of the dead, all Peruvians, have not been identified, said Belevan." UPDATE: "Peru has said it has had preliminary contacts about selling a stake in the airline to Air China, but a source at the Chinese airline stressed the talks were only informal and unlikely to lead to any deal as TANS is too small."

• "Looters descend on plane crash site in Peru" (Agence France Press) NOTE: Passengers said "flight attendant Paola Chu saved at least 12 people, including three Italians, leading them to the emergency exit and returning to help others even though she had a broken ankle and a deep gash on her face. Of the six crew, only Chu and one other flight attendant survived. The pilot, co-pilot, and two other flight attendants died. In a clinic where she was being treated, Chu, 21, said: ‘At one point as I was helping passengers, I saw my colleagues on fire. It was terrible’."NOTE: "The death toll was revised several times in the aftermath of the crash. That confusion brought a joyful shock for Juan Carlos Valles, who found his wife in an intensive care unit after being told she was dead. He had traveled from Lima to claim her remains. "We had accepted it and were at the point of arranging a Christian burial," he said. The couple's one-year-old son also survived, but was in critical condition in a Lima hospital."
• "Scavengers Swarm Over Peru Plane Wreckage" (Associated Press, Rick Vecchio; also in the The Los Angeles Times; and The New York Times in the World Briefings column) NOTE: "I'm collecting this for my house to hang my laundry," said Rosario Dahua, 47, as she tugged at a tangle of heavy black wires next to a partially submerged turbine jet motor wedged in the water and mud." ALSO: "Ronald Doneyre, 39, a trauma surgeon in Argentina, was returning to his boyhood home of Pucallpa for vacation "It was sunny in Lima when we took off. I was relaxed. It was a good flight. Everything was great until 10 minutes before landing." NOTE: "Doneyre said flight attendant Paola Chu asked him to help her open a rear door. She is widely credited with helping save a dozen passengers." He said a local man pointed him toward Pucallpa four miles away and he ran down a dirt path to a road, where he found the driver of a taxi, which took him to a police post and help."
• "Survivors of Peruvian airline crash recall struggle to stay alive" (The Associated Press, Rick Vecchio; also in the Miami Herald online)
• "Scavengers search Peru wreckage" (The BBC)
• "Peru pulls bodies from swamp as jet crash kills 40" Reuters (Mariana Bozo)
• "Scavengers, storms overwhelm Peru crash body hunt" (Reuters, Mariana Bazo)
• "Third American Identified in Peru Crash, Over Half Miraculously Survived" (Reuters, Mariana Bazo)
• "Third U.S. victim identified in Peru plane crash" (Reuters, Mariana Bozo; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino, Robin Emmott in Lima) Warning: Graphic content "Six of the victims have still not been named but TANS spokesman Jorge Belevan said an American woman had now been identified. The death toll already included two Americans, a man and a woman, as well as a Spanish woman, a Colombian woman and the pilot. "One Italian person is apparently also among the remains still to be identified," Belevan said." NOTE: "Thousands of bank notes -- wages being flown in for police officers -- littered the site." ALSO: "Peru's Trade and Tourism Minister Alfredo Ferrero blamed bad weather but said the Andean country -- which attracts millions of tourists every year -- must upgrade its airlines." NOTE: "Peru has said it has had preliminary contacts about selling a stake in the airline to Air China."
• "Baby plucked to safety from plane carnage" (The Telegraph) Baby’s name is Juan Carlos Valles
• "Jungle-crash family save a baby on trek to safety" The Times of London (James Bone in NYC)
  

Analyses:

• Reuters reports that "a list of airlines banned from flying in the EU due to safety concerns could be available to passengers within six months, the European Commission said on Friday, urging a rapid adoption after a spate of crashes. ... Forty people died on August 23 when a Boeing 737-200 aircraft of Peru's state-run airline TANS with 100 people aboard crashed during a severe storm in the country's jungle."
• "Airline review after deadly crash" (Agence France Press)
• "Name them and shame them: unsafe airlines" (Agence France Press)
  

Personal Stories:

• "Distraught family leaves to bring killed Australian home" (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  Australian Kirralee Thomas "had been in Peru teaching English to local children and was planning a boat trip on the Amazon River."
• "Australian woman dies in Peru crash" (The Sydney Morning Herald) Kirralee Thomas, "a West Australian woman was among the passengers killed in a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says." Thomas’ step-father told The West Australian newspaper his daughter's friend, named as Eva Maria Gonzalo, 27, of Spain, had died in the crash."
• "Peru plane crash victim 'cheated' London bombers" (Australia’s ABC News)
• "The Perth woman killed in a plane crash in Peru recently cheated death when she caught the bus which was targeted by the failed London bombers, her grandmother says."
• "Perth teacher dies in jungle crash" (Australia’s Perth Sunday Times, Holly Nott)
• "Tragic journey to crash" (Melbourne Herald Sun) "There had been confusion earlier because [Kirralee Thomas] was listed as Tomas Kirralee on the passenger manifest."
• "Teacher's dream trip ends in plane crash" (The Australian, Paige Taylor)
• "WA woman dead in Peru crash: DFAT" (The Australian)
• "Family fears daughter in Peru crash" (Brisbane Courier-Mail)
  
• Georgia Woman, Son Killed in Peru Crash (Associated Press)
• Former teacher, son were headed to Amazon for sightseeing; Trip of celebration turns to tragedy (Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Charles Yoo) Shera Young and Steve Lotti "The trip was 58-year-old Sherra Young's first trip abroad, a celebration of her retirement from Clayton County public schools."
  
• The NY Daily News (Rivka Bukowsky and Corky Siemaszko) continue their focus on the Vivas family.
• "Friends Say Brooklyn Family That Survived Plane Crash Deserved Miracle" (WNBC in NY) on the Vivas family
• "'Miracle' crash family strives to return home’ (New York Newsday, Peter Bowles)
  on the Vivas family. " ‘They lost their passports in the crash and they are still trying to get the paperwork done. They also went off to buy clothes," said Sandra Vivas, a sister.
  

Permalink; posted by Peruvia : 8/26/2005 10:50:00 PM