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The Guardian

Who REALLY discovered Machu Picchu?

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

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

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

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

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.

Human rights in Peru; a murky situation made worse by misinformation

The status of human rights in Peru has become a touchy topic in recent weeks following the issuance of decrees allowing a series of presidential decrees that allow greater leeway to arrest protesters.

President Alan Garcia’s approval rating has shrunk in recent months as inflation has eaten away at Peruvian buying power. Costs for staples such as chicken and bread have surged despite efforts to cut taxes on food imports. It’s a touchy topic for the president given the state he left he country in at the end of his first administration.

The unrest has led to some protesting but there are fears wider disruptions may occur during two major summits being held in Peru this year - one of European and Latin American leaders in May, and the other in November for Pacific Rim countries.

Critics of the president have insisted the decree make it easier for the military to arrest protesters is just a way to clamp down on unrest for the sake of the summits. Yet there are growing concerns in Peru that Venezuela’s leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, is working to bolster the disturbances.

Over the past few months, there have been numerous reports that Chavez is continuing to work behind the scenes in Peru to foment unrest by supporting protests, financing left-wing groups and using Bolivia as a training camp for radical leftists.

Peruvians are still living with the legacy of a two-decade-long Maoist insurgency that caused the death of nearly 70,000 people, and lead to atrocities on the part of both the leftists and the government. The latter including Garcia’s first administration.

It’s a complicated situation that has been muddied further by clumsy coverage on the part of the most vaunted of US newspapers – the Wall Street Journal – whose reporter, Mary Anastasia O’Grady has penned several articles from Lima.

Rick Vecchio, editor of The Peruvian Times and longtime reporter for the AP in Peru, blasted the article as, at the very least, ‘misinformed’ and pointed out it hinged solely on an interview with a congressman who is part of ex-President Alberto Fujimori’s congressional bloc... the ex-president currently on trial for, you guessed it, human rights abuses.

The lawmaker – and the newspaper – essentially accused one of the major human rights NGO’s in Peru of fostering terrorism, a NGO that pushed vehemently for the extradition of Fujimori in recent years.

Much of the US-based media has been overly infatuated with the Venezuelan leader’s doings on the continent and consistently insist that every liberal candidate that wins an election is part of a “pink shift” on the continent.

Which isn’t to say Chavez hasn’t been active in various roles. In 2006, he openly backed the ultra-nationalist candidate in Peru’s presidential election, Ollanta Humalla, and is believed to have offered financial backing to him. Many in Peru cited that as one of the many reasons for Garcia’s eventual election.

Volcanos in Chile and Peru rumble to life

A volcano in South Chile began erupting last week spewing ash miles into the sky and forcing thousands to evacuate.

The Chaiten volcano, about 760 miles south of the capital of Santiago began erupting on Friday sending a plume of ash thousands of feet into the sky and affecting many cities to the east in Argentina.

On Tuesday, new eruptions sent another cloud of ash 12 miles into the air and lava began pouring out of the mountain as well. A crater about 800 meters (2,600 feet) wide was created.

Authorities ordered everyone out of the immediate region. About 8,000 of 12,000 residents have left.

There are more than 100 active volcanoes in Chile of which two dozen are capable of erupting at any time. Geologists believe Chaiten has not erupted in the last 9,000 years.

Since the eruptions began on May 2, more than 4,000 people had fled the towns of towns of Chaiten and Futaleufu in the Palena province. Government authorities, including president Michele Bachelet, were on hand throughout the weekend to oversee the efforts.

Officials said that dozens of small earthquakes have been recorded in the area since the eruptions began.

In Southern Peru, the volcano Ubinas has been erupting for the past several weeks but not in as explosive fashion as Chatien. Over the weekend two new eruptions sent a cloud of ash more than 500 meters into the sky.

The mountain roared to life in March of 2006 but later quieted enough for residents to return. As of this week the more than five thousand residents in the region are waiting to see if they need to evacuate again.

The Peruvian source of the Amazon River

The Amazon River has long been recognized as the largest river in the world by volume – accounting for a fill fifth of the world’s total river flow. But a series of expeditions into the highlands of Southern Peru over the past decade have also established it as the longest river in the world.

This week, the Geographical Society of Lima is unveiling the findings of a 1996 expedition to find the source of the famous river led by Jacek Palkiewicz, an explorer of Italian and Polish descent.

That effort identified a small gorge on a slope of Nevado Mismi at 5,170 meters above sea level as the site of the start for the world’s largest and longest river. The waters form a small stream named Carhuasanta which flows into the Apurimac River and thence to the Amazon basin.

The Nevado Mismi point of origin makes the total length of the Amazon 6,800 kilometers(4,250 miles) exceeding the Nile by more than 100 kilometers (60 miles). A Brazilian expedition last year confirmed that result.

The location was confirmed in 2000 by a National Geographic Society expedition led by Andrew Pietowski, using GPS equipment to pinpoint the exact location of the Amazon’s source.

National Geographic had recognized the 18,363-foot-high (5,597-meter) mountain in southern Peru as the source since an expedition in 1971 but the precise location was not clear until Pietowski’s effort.

Peruvian Edgar Prado rides in the Kentucky Derby

Edgar Prado is arguably the most famous jockey who will be riding in the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Three years ago the 40-year-old Peruvian brought the tragic Barbaro to a six-and-a-half-length victory at Churchill downs.

And he was atop the thoroughbred two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes when the horse’s leg shattered dooming it.

That ill-starred ride was the highlight of what has been a phenomenal racing career for Prado. He has won more than 6,000 races, ridden in more than 31,500 and tallied more than $200 million in winnings. In August, the jockey will be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.

On Saturday, he will be riding Adriano, a 30-1 favorite, in the Run for the Roses.

He grew up in Lima near the Monterrico racetrack where his father worked and he learned about the sport. He won his first race as a rider there in 1983 and then came to the United States three years later.

The 5’ 3”, 114-pound jockey rode his first winner in Peru in 1983 and was a leading rider there before coming to the U.S. in 1986. And although he now lives in Miami, he says he still loves Peruvian ceviche.

He is, perhaps, most famous for his association with Barbaro and his book about the horse, My Guy Barbaro, was released this year.

“He is still a special horse to me,” Prado says. “He brought me the biggest thrill of my life, other than when my kids were born.”

Prado won’t be the only Peruvian rider at Churchill Downs on Saturday. Rafael Bejarano, who boasts 1,640 career wins is set to ride Anak Nakal in the Run for the Roses. Hailing from Arequipa, Bejarano now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, the home of the derby.

In addition to the pair of Peruvians there are three Venezuelans, three Panamanians as well as riders from Brazil, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

Peruvian worker safety concerns mount with fatal accident

Four construction workers were killed Wednesday on a jobsite in Miraflores, Peru when they were crushed by a collapsing wall.

The men, employees of J & J Engineers, had a license to work, said Manuel Masías, the mayor of Miraflores, but had been lax in implementing safety standards.

Masías said the municipality has eased safety supervision recently in an effort to facilitate project development in the rapidly growing suburb of Lima.

The accident is disturbingly similar to an incident in December that claimed the lives of eight workers in another Lima suburb, La Victoria. Workers with JAA Construction Company were digging a ditch as part of a building construction when a wall of concrete fell on them.

In that case, the company lacked a license to operate and no safety precautions of any type had been taken, officials said.

Peru’s recent economic health has spurred a boom in construction. In February, the sector saw an increase of 22.49 percent over the same month in 2007. But as jobs have boomed so have concerns about worker safety.

According to the Federation of Civil Construction Workers of Peru, 20 workers died in work-related accidents in 2005 and 38 were killed in 2006. Calls to improve worker safety prompted the Peruvian government to tighten laws overseeing the sector and establish an agency to inspect job sites.

Agents with the National Directorate of Inspection of the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion performed more than 183,000 inspections in 2007 – and increase of more than 60,000 from the year prior.

Ecuador considers women's right to orgasm

An Ecuadorian legislator has proposed a law designed to ensure women’s rights to sexual pleasure in the South American country.

Assembly member Maria Soledad Vela, recently proposed a change to the country’s constitution that would give women the right to sue their husbands if they are sexually unsatisfied.

She defended the measure as a means to end the traditional roles of women as sex objects or purely reproductive purposes – roles that almost completely exclude their right to enjoy sex.

Although the country has made significant progress in recent years, women continue to struggle for equality in the Andean nation. According to the country’s Office of Gender, women’s pay was 65 percent of the pay received by men for equal work last year. Abuses against women continue to be a problem as well.

Vela defended the law as a means to encourage responsible relationships and spark a dialogue about the state of sexual mores in light of Ecuador’s a male-dominated society.

"Women are only able express their dissatisfaction and problems, to doctors, or in small groups,” she said.

Ecuador’s legislature is currently rewriting the country’s constitution following a referendum held last April at the request of President Rafael Correa.

Other assembly members ridiculed the measure and accused Vela of trying to legislate orgasms.

“A friend of mine told me he was worried that he might get life in prison,” joked opposition Assembly member Leonardo Viteri.

“I never asked for the right to orgasm,” Vela countered. “Only the right to enjoyment.”

Fatal accidents mar start of tourist season in South America

As the summer tourist season begins to gain momentum in South America, a number of fatal accidents involving foreign visitors have dominated international attention.

Last Thursday a group of cyclists on Bolivia’s famous “Highway of Death” were slammed into by a Toyota Land Cruiser. One Briton on a bike was killed and eight of the people in the vehicle perished when it plunged over the cliff. Two other cyclists – also from the UK – were injured.

The incident follows the death of a US cyclist on the road April 19.

The highway between Bolivia’s capital of La Paz and Peru drops 3,600 meters in just 64 kilometers. Although paved in 2007, its hairpin turns and vast views have made it a destination for bicyclists with more than 25,000 riding it each year.

In southern Peru, five French tourists perished on April 9 when the plane they were in crashed near the Nazca lines. The pilot, who survived, claimed one of the passengers became frantic and tugged on the pilot's safety harness.

The famous geometric figures and rude drawings scoured into the desert hundreds of years ago are best viewed from the air and a cottage industry has emerged to handle the demand. According to officials there are about 40 small planes that make the 30-minute flights over the lines and air traffic becomes seriously congested during the tourist season.

Peruvian lawmakers vowed to strengthen restrictions on the planes to ensure better safety but just this weekend another plane had a close call when it experienced mechanical problems and was forced to land on the Panamerican Highway near the town.

In the most widely covered incident this year four British teenage girls and their tour guide were killed on April 12 in a bus crash in Ecuador. Fifteen others were injured when the bus struck another truck. The girls were on of the hundreds of gap-year tourists – young Europeans traveling the world in the year prior to university.

While these incidents garner massive amounts of foreign attention they are usually not considered in proper context. Since tourists almost inevitably travel in groups, accidents subsequently tend to involve larger numbers.

Moreover, the standard of safety for tourists may be wanting in comparison to many places in Europe and the US but it often is much higher than regular standards in the country in question. For example, bus accidents involving dozens of victims are depressingly common in rural Andean communities – but tourists rarely use these bus lines or travel to these areas.

Peruvian model sentenced to prison

Peruvian actress and model Angie Jibaja was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday for attacking another woman in a nighclub in 2006.

According to prosecutors Jibaja began arguing with Vanesa La Torre Cutipa at a Miraflores nightclub on Feb. 5, 2006. The two began fighting and La Torre was seriously injured when Jibaja threw a glass in her face.

The 28-year-old model was also ordered to pay La Torre about $1,000. in civil reparations.

Jibaja is a well known in Peru and gained wider fame for her role as Gabriela in the 2005 film Mañana te cuento. She is highly recognizable due to her distinctive tattoos.

According to reports, Jibaja was hysterical upon hearing the sentence. Her attorney, Luis Alberto Paz, described the judge’s decision as “excessive” but the court cited the actresses repeated instances of ignoring summons as basis for the decision.

Breaking the monopoly on the railroad to Machu Picchu

After almost a decade, the monopoly on the train route to Machu Picchu has been broken and pair of firms are poised to begin ferrying passenger’s on the famous route.

Access to Machu Picchu is only possible via the 110-kilometer rail line between Cusco and Aguas Calientes. The 90-minute train ride currently costs between $100 and $150 (round trip) although rates change dramatically during the high season.

On Wednesday, Inka Rail was granted access to the route by by Ferrocarril Transandino SA, the company that maintains the route and handles concessions to operate on it.

Inka Rail, controlled by the British-Peruvian company Grupo Crosland, expects to invest $5 million to introduce a three-car train that will carry 150 passengers daily along the route.

Although granted access, the company must now obtain a final license through Ositrain, the agency that oversees Peru’s transportation sector. That process has been significantly relaxed recently to allow more operators to access the rail route, officials said.

For the past nine years only one firm, PeruRail, has been permitted to use the route by Transandino. PeruRail is owned by the Bermuda-based Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.

Last year, Transandino was fined $185,000 by the Peruvian government for operating an illegal monopoly by refusing to sublet trains and other equipment that it rents from the state to any firm but PeruRail.

Another company, Andean Railways, is also pushing for access to the rail route. The proposal is still being reviewed by Transandino. Andean Railways is owned by US-based Iowa Pacific Holdings.

The increased rail access to the site has sharpened concerns about the influx of tourists to the famed ‘lost city of the Incas.’ Last year more than 750,000 people visited the site, a number expected to increase by at least 10 percent this year.

Topless videos may cost Peruvian pageant winner her crown

Last Saturday, 19-year-old Johana Nakano was chosen as Miss Chiclayo. Less than a day later, videos of her taken several years ago were leaked on the web including one where she appears topless.

The mayor of the city, Roberto Torres, immediately called for her to be stripped of the crown but pageant organizers decided to wait until the matter had been fully investigated.

Pageant organizers have formed a "Court of Honor" that will make a final decision on the matter and reccomend action the organizing committee. Torres did succeed in ensuring she was not allowed to take part in the city's 173rd anniversary celebrations this weekend.

A former boyfriend who Nakano has declined to identify, released the videos onto the web almost immediately after she won the pageant. She says she was 15-years-old when they were taken.

The teenager said she wants to keep the crown and has retained an attorney to represent her. She also says she will be pursuing legal action against the man who released the videos.

"I am not interested in the crown," she said. "I want my dignity."

The Trial of Alberto Fujimori

In a specially constructed courtroom located in a prison facility on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, the man who held control of this Andean country with an iron fist for a decade is facing justice at long last.

Alberto Fujimori assumed the presidency in 1990 in the wake of current president Alan Garcia’s disastrous first term in office. He was a dark-horse candidate but he bested novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in a runoff with 57 percent of the vote.

At the time Peru was in desperate straights. Hyperinflation and an ongoing leftist insurgency had brought the government to its knees and the country was teetering on collapse. Over the next several years, Fujimori oversaw a dramatic turnaround that was enabled by his authoritarian hold on the government.

Ten years later Fujimori’s government collapsed amid charges of abuse of power and corruption. The disgraced president faxed in his resignation and fled to Japan, his ancestral homeland, which then refused to allow his extradition.

Yet, in 2005, Fujimori flew to Santiago, Chile ostensibly to affect the 2006 presidential election. He was arrested by Chilean authorities and returned to Peru last year after a convoluted extradition process.

Today, Fujimori faces a battery of charges that encompass allegations of corruption and human rights abuses during his term in office. The trials began on Dec. 10, 2007, ironically enough, Human Rights Day. As many expected, Fujimori started the proceedings with a bang, angrily shouting "I declare myself innocent," and "I never ordered the death of anybody."

He was quickly found guilty for an abuse of authority charge and sentenced to six years in prison - a conviction upheld this week. While the conviction is on a relatively minor incident - for illegally ordering the search and seizure of the home of his former security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos (who is also on trial for various abuses) – it gives the government the ability to hold the ex-president for trial on the other more serious charges.

One of the most serious charges against the president is what has come to be known as "La Cantuta University massacre." Nine students and a professor from a local teachers' college suspected of being rebel collaborators were kidnapped and killed in 1992 by members of a military death squad acting under executive orders.

In a separate trial last week, a general and three members of the nefarious La Colina unit were convicted for the killings, a verdict that could have implications for the ex-president's trial.

"If the men who carried out the acts are found guilty, undoubtedly, the man at the top of the command chain, the man behind it all, Fujimori, also will be condemned for the same acts," said Jose Pelaez, the prosecutor in Fujimori's trial.

Perhaps the best resource on the legal proceedings it the blog, Fujimori on Trial, being produced by the Praxis Institute for Social Justice that is providing daily updates and analysis.

Bolivia's constitutional crisis

A showdown between Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, and leaders of the country's four most prosperous provinces - Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni - looms large over the tiny Andean nation threatening to spill over into violence if not averted.

Next month, the provinces are slated to hold referendums over on provincial autonomy, the first on May 4 in Santa Cruz. If successful at the ballot box, the state would have the power to collect taxes, create its own police force and make the local government responsible for redistributing lands.

The Bolivian government has vowed to prosecute the leaders of the referendum effort but, so far, have not take action. Morales supports have vowed to create roadblocks in order to stop the election. The country’s 40 Roman Catholic bishops have been trying to mediate the dispute but have warned it could easily lead to violence.

Officials with the Organization of American States are scheduled to meet with the leaders of the rouge provinces next week in an effort mediate the situation. In addition, foreign ministers of Brazil and Argentina have made similar diplomatic overtures in recent days.

The confrontation highlights the country's stark internal divisions. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, made waves two years ago when he nationalized Bolivia's energy industry and other natural resources. The rewrite of the constitution to redistribute land and wealth has been a priority of his administration from the start.

More than 60 percent of Bolivia's population are indigenous peoples, the majority of whom live in the western highland provinces and make up the poorest portion of the population.

The leaders of the provinces have opposed the leftist leader's efforts to reform the country's constitution. Morales claims the change will empower the country's poor Indian majority. The more affluent provinces have objected to the measure saying it comes at their expense.

In November 2007, a draft constitution was approved inside a military base in the vicinity of Sucre, with the support of all pro-government assembly members - opposition representatives were not admitted. Three people died and 20 more were injured during riots protesting the change of venue.

In March, the country’s national electoral court postponed a referendum slated for next month for the new constitution in hopes an agreement could be reached between the two sides. According to a recent poll, Bolivians are evenly split on the measure.

Peru accuses Yale of undercounting Machu Picchu artifacts

A hotly disputed claim to artifacts from Machu Picchu heated up again this weekend when Peruvian officials claimed researchers at Yale University have severely undercounted the number of items in question.

Peruvian officials say that more than 40,000 artifacts from the famed ‘lost city’ of the Incas are in the possession of the university – ten times the amount the school has claimed.

The dispute is the latest disagreement between the country and the university over the artifacts that were taken from the ruins by Yale alumnus Hiram Bingham who rediscovered the site in 1911. Today, Yale’s Peabody Museum holds the artifacts that the explorer brought back from multiple expeditions to Peru between 1912 and 1915.

Peru claims the artifacts were a short-term loan but the university disagreed. Last year, Peru threatened to take the matter to court but relented in September when the university agreed to work to find a resolution to the matter.

Last month, researchers from Peru traveled to New Haven, Conn. to examine the artifacts in question. In addition, the university also published a catalog of the items on the internet.

Yale researchers say the discrepancy is accountable due to disagreement over what items represent “museum-quality” pieces and which can be classified as non-museum-quality.

According to the agreement between Peru and the university, the museum-quality pieces would be returned to the country following an international exposition. The non-museum-quality pieces would remain at the university museum for another 99 years.

Peru's Doe Run smelter feels the heat

Concerns about the devastating environmental impact of Peru’s infamous Doe Run smelter have increased with the suspension of the facility's environmental certification by an independent auditor.

The smelter is located near the village of La Oroya in the Central Peruvian Andes processes iron, zinc, copper, silver and gold. Originally established in 1922, the facility, ownership passed to the St. Louis, Mo.-based Doe Run Company when it acquired the plant in 1997 from government-owned company, Centromin.

The auditor, TUV Rheinland of Cologne, Germany, granted the Doe Run smelter an environmental certification in 2006. Although it is not required by the Peruvian government for Doe Run to operate, many customers supplied by the facility who requires such certification.

La Oroya, the site of the smelter, repeatedly ranks on the Blacksmith Institute’s list of the top ten polluted places on the planet, sharing the dubious honor with places like Chernobyl, Ukraine. Last year the company was fined $230,000 for repeatedly exceeding the maximum limit for toxic emissions as well as emitting sulfuric dioxide without supervision or controls.

Numerous studies have shown that the 35,000 residents of La Oroya have been dangerously exposed to toxic emissions from the smelter. According to a survey conducted by the Peruvian Ministry of Health in 1999, blood lead levels among local children are dangerously high.

The suspension of the independent environmental certification comes as the smelter is under increasing pressure by the Peruvian government to accelerate clean-up efforts. An extension of the plant’s environmental management plan approved by the Peruvian government in 2004 is set to expire this year.

Earlier this year, the company was issued a one-year deadline to implement an emergency clean-up plan to alleviate toxic emissions near the smelter. To comply, the company has pledged drastic reductions in emissions by the end of the year. To achieve those goals, the company is installing a sulphuric-acid plant at La Oroya to capture sulphur dioxide and other toxic emissions.

In addition to the environmental concerns the plant is also the focus of labor issues. Workers at the smelter walked off the job on April 5 to to demand better working conditions and a share of profits.

The impact of the work stoppage is unclear since both sides have given dramatically different assessments of the situation. Officials with the union claim that 90 percent of the 1,720 workers are taking part in the strike but the company insists that 70 percent of their employees are at work. Doe Run has insisted the continuity of operations has not been affected by the strike which they claim is illegal.

::Update 14/04 :: The company now says the strike has cut output by 25 percent.