 |
Travel to Peru — Unbiased reviews and great deals from
TripAdvisorPeru
| Republic of Peru National
name: República del Perú President: Alan García (2006) Prime Minister: Yehude Simon (2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 494,208 sq mi (1,279,999 sq
km); total area: 496,223 sq mi (1,285,220 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 28,674,757 (growth
rate: 1.3%); birth rate: 20.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 30.0/1000;
life expectancy: 70.1; density per sq mi: 58
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Lima, 8,180,000 (metro. area), 7,029,928 (city
proper) Other large cities:
Arequipa, 837,300; Trujillo, 725,200; Chiclayo, 598,400 Monetary unit: Nuevo sol (1991)
Languages:
Spanish, Quéchua (both official); Aymara;
many minor Amazonian languages
Ethnicity/race:
Amerindian 45%, mestizo 37%, white 15%, black,
Japanese, Chinese, and other 3%
Religion:
Roman Catholic 81%, Seventh-Day Adventist 1%,
other Christian 1%, unspecified or none 16% (2003 est.) Literacy rate: 87.7% (2004 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$219 billion; per capita $7,800. Real growth rate: 9%.
Inflation: 1.8%. Unemployment: 6.9% in metropolitan
Lima; widespread underemployment. Arable land: 3%.
Agriculture: coffee, cotton, sugarcane, rice, potatoes, corn,
plantains, grapes, oranges, coca; poultry, beef, dairy products; fish.
Labor force: 9.419 million; agriculture 9%, industry 18%,
services 73% (2001). Industries: mining and refining of
minerals; steel, metal fabrication; petroleum extraction and refining,
natural gas; fishing and fish processing, textiles, clothing, food
processing. Natural resources: copper, silver, gold, petroleum,
timber, fish, iron ore, coal, phosphate, potash, hydropower, natural
gas. Exports: $27.14 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): copper, gold,
zinc, crude petroleum and petroleum products, coffee. Imports:
$18.75 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): petroleum and petroleum products,
plastics, machinery, vehicles, iron and steel, wheat, paper. Major
trading partners: U.S., China, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Japan,
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Mexico (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 2.332 million (2006); mobile cellular: 8.5 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 472, FM 198, shortwave 189 (1999).
Radios: 6.65 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 13 (plus 112 repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 3.06
million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 270,193
(2007). Internet users: 6.1 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 1,989 km
(2002). Highways: total: 78,829 km; paved: 11,351 km (includes
276 km of expressways); unpaved: 67,478 km (2004 est.).
Waterways: 8,808 km, 8,808 km of navigable tributaries of
Amazon system and 208 km of Lago Titicaca. Ports and harbors:
Callao, Chimbote, Ilo, Matarani, Paita, Puerto Maldonado, Salaverry,
San Martin, Talara, Iquitos, Pucallpa, Yurimaguas; note: Iquitos,
Pucallpa, and Yurimaguas are all on the upper reaches of the Amazon
and its tributaries. Airports: 237 (2007). International disputes: Bolivia continues to
press Chile and Peru to restore the Atacama corridor ceded to Chile in
1884.
Major sources and definitions
|
|
Geography
Peru, in western South America, extends for nearly 1,500 mi (2,414 km)
along the Pacific Ocean. Colombia and Ecuador are to the north, Brazil and
Bolivia to the east, and Chile to the south. Five-sixths the size of
Alaska, Peru is divided by the Andes Mountains into three sharply
differentiated zones. To the west is the coastline, much of it arid,
extending 50 to 100 mi (80 to 160 km) inland. The mountain area, with
peaks over 20,000 ft (6,096 m), lofty plateaus, and deep valleys, lies
centrally. Beyond the mountains to the east is the heavily forested slope
leading to the Amazonian plains.
Government
Constitutional republic.
History
Peru was once part of the great Incan Empire and later the major
vice-royalty of Spanish South America. It was conquered in 1531–1533
by Francisco Pizarro. On July 28, 1821, Peru proclaimed its independence,
but the Spanish were not finally defeated until 1824. For a hundred years
thereafter, revolutions were frequent; a new war was fought with Spain in
1864–1866, and an unsuccessful war was fought with Chile from 1879
to 1883 (the War of the Pacific).
Peru emerged from 20 years of dictatorship in 1945 with the
inauguration of President José Luis Bustamente y Rivero after the
first free election in many decades. But he served for only three years
and was succeeded in turn by Gen. Manuel A. Odria, Manuel Prado y
Ugarteche, and Fernando Belaúnde Terry. On Oct. 3, 1968,
Belaúnde was overthrown by Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado. In 1975,
Velasco was replaced in a bloodless coup by his prime minister, Gen.
Francisco Morales Bermudez, who promised to restore civilian government.
In elections held on May 18, 1980, Belaúnde Terry, the last
civilian president, was elected president again.
The Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso, began
their brutal campaign to overthrow the government in 1980. The military's
subsequent crackdown led to further civilian human rights abuses and
disappearances. A smaller rebel group, Tupac Amaru, also fought against
the government. About 69,000 people were killed during the 1980–2000
wars between rebel groups and the government. The deaths were carried out
by the rebels (54%) as well as the military (30%); other militias were
responsible for the remainder.
Peru's fragile democracy survived. In 1985, Belaúnde Terry was
the first elected president to turn over power to a constitutionally
elected successor since 1945. Alberto Fujimori won the 1990 elections.
Citing continuing terrorism, drug trafficking, and corruption, Fujimori
dissolved Congress, suspended the constitution, and imposed censorship in
April 1992. By September, most of Shining Path had been vanquished. A new
constitution was approved in 1993.
Fujimori was reelected in 1995 and again in May 2000 to a third
five-year term, after his opponent, Alejandro Toledo, withdrew from the
contest, charging fraud. In Sept. 2000, Fujimori's intelligence chief,
Vladimiro Montesinos, was videotaped bribing a congressman. Fujimori
announced he would dismantle the powerful National Intelligence Service,
which has been accused of human rights violations. Two months later, he
stunned his nation by resigning during a trip to Japan. Revelations that
Fujimori secretly held Japanese citizenship—and could not be
extradited to face corruption charges—enraged the populace.
In 2001, the centrist Alejandro Toledo was elected president with 53%
of the vote, narrowly defeating former president Alan García. His
rags-to-riches story and mixed Indian and Latino heritage made him popular
among the poor. Inheriting a country racked by economic troubles and
corruption, Toledo did little, however, to restore confidence in the
government. Early in his presidency, he gave himself a significant pay
raise while at the same time calling for economic austerity. In June 2002,
a popular revolt took place in the cities of Arequipa and Tacna and in
other areas of southern Peru after the sale of two state-run electricity
firms to a Belgian company, Tractebel. Toledo had specifically promised
during his campaign not to sell these firms. Opinion polls at the time
indicated that more than 60% of Peruvians were adamantly opposed to
privatization and foreign investment, which in the past had led to price
increases, mass layoffs, corruption, and few discernible benefits for the
populace. A series of scandals and political missteps between 2003 and
2005 caused Toledo's approval ratings to plummet, at one point as low as
8%.
In the first round of presidential elections in April 2006, voters
chose a former army officer, Ollanta Humala, from among 20 candidates. But
in the second round in June, former president Alan García, whose
1985–1990 administration left Peru in economic ruin, made a
startling comeback, winning with 52.6% of the votes. Election analysts
have suggested that voters felt Humala, a former military leader who had
once led a coup, was unpredictable and capable of eroding Peru's
democracy, and that García, despite his proven economic
incompetence and a reputation for corruption, was the marginally better
bet.
In August 2007, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck 95 miles southeast
of Lima, killing at least 430 people and leveling churches and homes.
In September 2007, Chile's Supreme Court approved the extradition of
former president Alberto Fujimori to Peru, where he will face charges of
corruption and human rights abuses. He had been in Chile since 2005, when
he was detained after stopping there on his way from exile in Japan back
to Peru. He had reportedly planned to attempt to make a political
comeback.
On October 10, 2008, García's entire cabinet was forced to
resign over an oil corruption scandal. On Oct. 11, 2008, in an attempt to
regain popularity, President García appointed a leftist regional
governor, Yehude Simon, as his prime minister—a move that shocked
many.
See also Encyclopedia: Peru.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Peru
National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (In Spanish
only) www.inei.gob.pe/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Peru from Infoplease:
|
|
