PERU: Prez. Garcia Dedicates His Giant Christ Statue Overlooking Lima.

YOU TUBE/ TELEGRAPH Video 1:15


For Previous story and details, SEE :
http://thehypervigilantobserver.blogspot.com/2011/06/peru-outgoing-prez-garcia-wants-to.html

PERU: Outgoing Prez. Garcia Secretly Constructed Christ Statue...Bigger Than Rio's.

GUARDIAN / D. Collyns


Outgoing President Alan García had a "vision".

He felt that constructing the world's tallest statue of Jesus Christ overlooking Lima...would "bless Peru and protect Lima".
And, no doubt, leave a highly visible monument...honoring his years in power.

Now, the critics have descended on Garcia...since his secret statue was revealed.

The 37 meters high statue...will be dedicated on 29 June...visible from anywhere on the city's 12-mile coastline. It has cost almost $900,000 usd to construct...monies donated by a private Brasilian firm.

Architect Augusto Ortiz de Zevallos called it an "excessive and authoritarian gesture" lacking in "aesthetic, historic or symbolic" significance,  comparing it to the monumentalism of 1940s leaders such as Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.

PERU: Yale Returns Some Inca Artefacts.

BBC

   After years of legal and political wrangling, Yale Univeristy has finally returned hundreds of Inca artefacts, nearly a century after they were taken from Machu Picchu.
    The first shipment was given a lavish welcome at Lima's presidential palace.
   Eventually some 45,000 archaeological pieces will be returned.
  "They are treasures, even though they are not made of gold or precious stones because they represent the dignity and pride of Peru," said President Alan Garcia.

PERU: Wikileaks: Garcia Has "Colossal Ego," Perhaps Manic; Bus Crash Kills 17, Injures 20 In Huanuco.

AP/M.HERALD/
   A 2006 cable, revealed by Wikileaks, states that President Alan Garcia had "a colossal ego" and speculates he might suffer from manic depression or bipolar disorder.
   It also cites "widespread rumors" of Garcia's extramarital affairs. It was written four-and-a-half months after Garcia, 61, assumed office for a second time.

   "This is gossip, information you tend to get from your family, your spouse, at work from bosses, opinion, rumor," said Garcia. "I don't feel offended, nor do I give it importance. But I will say there's a lot of poor-quality diplomacy."

   At least 17 people were killed and 20 injured, six in serious condition after a speeding bus carrying more than 50 passengers fell into a ravine and then into a river in  Huanuco. 

 FOR DETAILS, SEE:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/17/peru.bus.crash/ 


 Meanwhile in November, the ego-challenged Garcia blamed his low approval ratings on sad Peruvians.

"We are what we are: sad, distrustful ... We have a natural lack of trust." He says that in contrast, Brazilians "have another sort of nature, joyful and sunny." 

     Just maybe its the poor roads.

PERU: Garcia Says Yale Will Return ALL Machu Picchu Artifacts.

LAHT/
     On national TV, President Alan Garcia announced that Yale University has decided to return ALL all the artifacts removed from the Machu Picchu and held by it since 1912.
   Garcia said former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, the  director of Yale's Center for the Study of Globalization, told him of  the university's decision to hand over “all of the items, fragments and pieces that were taken from Machu Picchu by Mr. Hiram Bingham almost a century ago.”

PERU: Thousands Protest Demanding Yale Return Inca Artifacts.

LIVING IN PERU/
    Thousands marched in Lima and Cusco demanding that Yale University return the 40,000 Inca artifacts held since the early 20th century.
    President Alan García along with Foreign Affairs Minister José Antonio García Belaunde headed-up the Lima protest.
    “Let’s all march united, from different political parties, regions, movements, together, which is how the people want to see and respect us, which is how Yale will see us,” Garcia said at a rally.

PERU: Garcia Allegedly Hits Critic During Hospital Visit.

LAHT/
     Newspapers report that President Alan Garcia struck a man who insulted him last weekend during a visit to a public hospital. Garcia struck Richard Galvez Leon, a volunteer for the social aid program Kurame.
      Witnesses claimed that Galvez called Garcia “corrupt” as the president was leaving Regabliati Hospital. Garcia then turned around and smacked Galvez in the face.
     Garcia denies anything happened.
     However, the media notes that Garcia kicked a youth with health problems during a protest march in 2004.

PERU: Garcia Demands Yale Return Machu Picchu Treasures Or Be Called "Looters."

TELEGRAPH/       President Alan Garcia is demanding that Yale University return some 40,000 archeological artifacts its researchers "looted" from Machu Picchu in the early 1900s.
"Either we come to an understanding regarding ... Machu Picchu, or we'll simply have to describe them as looters of treasures," stated Garcia.
The treasures were dispatched after Yale alumnus Hiram Bingham rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. Garcia claims the objects were lent to Yale for 18 months but never sent back. "Now is the time to start packing up the things and send then over together with the research. ... Silence would indicate that they are guilty of robbery," said Garcia.

PERU: President Garcia Revokes Civil War Amnesty Decree.

GUARDIAN/ RORY CARROLL/   Reportedly prodded by angry novelist Mario Vargas Llossa (pictures left) and other activists, President Alan Garcia is revoking an amnesty for officials and soldiers accused of civil war atrocities. Just 2 weeks Alan Garcia personally issued a decree for such protection. Yesterday he asked congress to annul it.

PERU: Profile Of Unpopular President Alan Garcia.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO /
"...in what might be considered his (President Garcia's) comeback term, a chance to rehabilitate his place in history, the insurgency is a shadow of its former self, the economy is booming — and he is still battling low approval ratings and heated criticism from his constituents."
AND: " Few leaders in Latin America embody the rise and fall of political fortunes like Mr. García, educated in Paris at the Sorbonne, where he studied sociology, and elected president in 1985 for the first time at age 35."
AND: " “We need someone strong to remove the criminals who infiltrate our government, not someone like Alan who talks pretty and does little,” said Ernán Cóndor, 22, a miner in the mountains above Lima."

PERU: Garcia Blocks Rainforest Law.

GUARDIAN.U.K./         Indigenous groups are furious with President Alan Garcia for pocket vetoing a law that could have helped them stop oil, gas and mining projects on their lands. Garcia is a former leftist-turned free market champion. He claimed the legislation would damage the economy and refused to sign it meaning it will be months before it can be revived.

PERU: IMF Chief Praises Garcia For 2010 Projected 5-7% Growth.

MERCOPRESS/      "Peru's economic policies enforced in recent years are correct, and that is the reason why the country survived the last international financial crisis without suffering great consequences” gushed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about President Alan Garcia's management. ”Peru's international reserves (of more than 35 billion US dollars) are extraordinary, and we estimate an economic growth of 5 to 7% this year; it is a high and significant figure," he went on.

PERU: After Miners' Deaths, Opposition Says Garcia Must Go.

REUTERS.UK/    The nation's left-wing Nationalist Party wants President Alan Garcia declared "morally unfit" to lead, but the move to make him to leave office is likely to fail in the Congress. Garcia is a pro-business centrist whose term has seen deadly conflicts over natural resources including last week's blockade that left 6 protesting miners dead. "President Garcia is morally incapable," said Nationalist leader Ollanta Humala in Congress. Though Peru's economy has grown, Garcia's approval rating only lingers around 30% as the poor say the boom passed them by.

PERU: UPDATE: Gold Miners Lift Roadblocks After Protests That Left At Least 6 Dead.

BUSINESS WEEK/UPDATE/ 07 ABRIL/  Peruvian miners have ended  protests that left at least six people dead after the government agreed to review a ban on unregulated gold mining. Previously, President Alan Garcia maintained that his government would shut down wildcat miners who protested new regulations. The army killed 6 protesters, while the miners claim 9 were shot dead. "We’re not against mining, but this is a savage, informal kind of mining that pays no taxes and establishes its own ways of working like slavery, prostitution, white slavery and even the enslaving of children,” Garcia said. About 10,000 miners battled police and blocked roads along the southern coast since April 4, with at least 27 people injured, 60 arrested and 1,500 vehicles stranded on  the Pan-American Highway near Chala.

PERU: The Fat Thieves Saga Continues; Garcia Defends Claim.

AP/ MIAMI HERALD/
Peru's President Alan Garcia denied his government made up the story of a gang of murderous fat-thieves. He said the claim was fundamentally true if exaggerated. Garcia also denied allegations that police killed 46 suspects in Trujillo in 2007 and 2008.

PERU: New Gas Field Discovered.

LAHT/
President Alan Garcia announced the discovery of “a large quantity of (natural) gas” in a concession operated by Petrobras near the Camisea gas field in the southeast.
“We found gas in the jungle in Lot 58, a new lot that had never been explored before. We estimate we could have another 4 or 5 trillion cubic feet here,” Garcia said.

Peru's Garcia's Popularity Wanes.

From COHA.

Peru's President Alan Garcia is facing his biggest political crisis since taking office in 2006...with social unrest and indigenous protests.