Country Fact Sheet - Peru

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Official name

Republic of Peru (República del Perú).

Geography

Located in Western South America, along the Pacific Ocean (between Chile and Ecuador).

1,285,220 sq km.

The climate in the eastern part of the country is tropical; it is dry in the West, cold in the Andes. Peru and Bolivia share control of Lago Titicaca.

Population and density

Population: 27,952,000 (2005 estimate).

Density: 21.5.

Principal cities and populations

Lima (capital) 8,550,000 (2005 Estimate); Arequipa 710,103 (July 1998); Trujillo 603,657 (July 1998); Callao 515,200 (1985); Chiclayo 469,200 (July 1998); Iquitos 334,013 (July 1998).

Languages

Official languages: Quechua, Spanish, Aymará.

Indian populations form 46% of the population and speak Quechua and Aymará.

Religions

Roman Catholicism (state religion).

Ethnic groups

Amerindian 45%; mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37% to 44%; white 10% to 15%; black, Japanese, Chinese and other 3%.

Demographics

Population growth rate: 1.32 %.

Infant mortality rate: 30.94 deaths/1,000 live births.

Life expectancy at birth: 70.2 (2004).

Fertility rate: 2.51 children born/woman (2006 estimate).

Literacy: 87.7 of people aged 15 or older can read and write (2004 estimate).

Currency

Nuevo Sol (PEN).

PEN 2.72 = CAD 1.00.¹

National holidays

2007: 1 January (New Year's Day), 5 April (Maundy Thursday), 6 April (Good Friday), 1 May (Labour Day), 24 June (Day of the Peasant, half day only), 29 June (St Peter and St Paul), 28-29 July (Independence), 30 August (St Rose of Lima), 8 October (Battle of Angamos), 1 November (All Saints' Day), 8 December (Immaculate Conception), 25 December (Christmas Day).

Head of state and government

Alan García Pérez (Peruvian Aprista Party) since 28 July 2006.

Form of government

The president is directly elected for a five year term. Power is shared with a prime minister and a governing council of ministers, appointed by the president. The president can seek re-election, but not for consecutive terms.

Legislative structure

Unicameral congress of 120 members elected to represent geographical areas. Members of congress are elected from a single national list for five-year terms. Composition after 2006 election: Union for Peru (45), Peruvian Aprista Party (36), National Unity (17), Alliance for the Future (13), Center Front (5), National Restoration (2), Peru Possible (2). The president of congress is Mercedes Cabanillas.

The congress can be dissolved once during a presidential term.

Administrative divisions

Peru is divided into 25 administrative regions. Subdivisions consist of 278 regional authorities and 12,138 municipal authorities. The province of Lima is an additional administrative division.

Judicial system

The Supreme Court heads the judicial system of Peru which also includes 18 district courts, a nine-member constitutional court and a national council for the judiciary. The Supreme Court is located in Lima.

Elections

Voting is mandatory between the ages of 18 and 70.

Presidential and congressional elections are planned for 2011. Regional and municipal elections were held on 19 November 2006.

Terms both for the presidency and congress last five years.

Defence

The two-year military service is selective. In August 2005, Peru had a navy of 25,000, an air force of 15,000 and an army of 40,000. An additional 77,000 personnel form part of police paramilitary forces. The 2005 budget allocated PEN 3.6 billion [CAD 1.33 billion²] to the military and security forces.

Media

Newspapers published daily in Lima: Ojo, El Comercio, Extra, El Expresso, La República, El Correo, La Industria.

Official government publication: El Peruano.

Weekly: Unidad.

Freedom of expression is eroding due to a government campaign to silence critics.

The government controls the Andean News Agency (Agencia de Noticias Andina).

The government-owned Peruvian Radio and Television (Radio y Television Peruana) operates a few dozen radio and television stations, but the majority of the 1,300 existing ones are privately owned.

There are 4.7 million TV receivers and 126,000 personal computers for 2.9 million Internet users.

United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) and Country Rank^A

Value: 0.767/1 (2004).

Rank: 82 out of 177 countries (2004).

United Nations Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and Country Rank^B

Value: 0.759/1.

Rank: 67 out of 177 countries.

Population below the national poverty line

49%.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)^C

Score: 3.3/10.

Rank: 70 out of 163 countries surveyed.

Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)^D

Political parties 4.2, parliament/legislature 4.3, police 4.2, tax revenue 3.4, business/private sector 3.4, customs 4.1, medical services 3.4, media 3.5, education system 3.4, utilities 3.3, registry and permit services 3.7, military 3.9, nongovernmental organizations 3.1 and religious bodies 2.4.

[Information compiled from: EIU 17 October 2006; The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3498-3521; Political Handbook of the World: 2006-2007 Oct. 2006 965-974; Political Parties of the World 2006, 473-476; TI 2005 and 2006; UN 2006; US 19 Dec. 2006]

[A] The HDI is a composite measurement of human development in a country, based on life expectancy, levels of literacy and education, and standard of living. Values are: 0.800 and higher (high human development), 0.500-0.799 (medium human development) and 0.500 and under (low development index). Countries are ranked in descending order by their HDI value.[back]

[B] The GDI adjusts the rating of the HDI to reflect inequalities between men and women[back]

[C] The Transparency International CPI is based on composite survey data from 16 polls and 10 independent institutions. The data reflects the perceptions of resident and non-resident business people and country analysts. Scores range from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean). According to their score, countries are ranked in order from least corrupt (1) to most corrupt (163)[back]

[D] The Transparency International GCB is a public opinion survey used to gauge people's perceptions of corruption within their own state[back]

2. POLITICAL BACKGROUND

On 28 July 2006, Alan García Pérez succeeded Alejandro Toledo as president after winning the second ballot on 4 June 2006.³ García Pérez was also president between 1985 and 1990.⁴ The party Union for Peru (Unión por el Perú, UPP), led by Ollanta Humala Tasso, obtained a plurality in the Peruvian congress.⁵ This party also won in 15 departments while García Pérez's party won in 9 of them.⁶

The conservative candidate Lourdes Flores Nano was leading in the polls prior to the elections.⁷ She finished third in the first round, behind Humala Tasso and García Pérez.⁸

The government of Alejandro Toledo faced public disturbances and went through four different prime ministers in a 30-month period from his election to December 2003.⁹ Other events such as political scandals eroded the credibility of Toledo's government and provoked successive changes in government, including the resignation of the entire cabinet in June 2003 and a cabinet reshuffle in February 2004.¹⁰ The year 2004 was marked by allegations of corruption in the Toledo government.¹¹

In 2000, scandals involving then president Alberto Fujimori's administration, including allegations that his chief of intelligence Vladimir Montesinos had tried to bribe an opposition member, led the president to disband the intelligence services and to call for new presidential elections from which he abstained.¹² Alejandro Toledo won the presidency during a second-ballot on 3 June 2001.¹³

Alberto Fujimori fled to Japan in November 2000 and subsequent extradition requests were rejected by Japanese authorities.¹⁴ Fujimori was arrested when he arrived in Chile on 6 November 2005, reportedly to conduct an election campaign from there.¹⁵

In 2001, Peru established a Truth Commission to address government tactics in fighting guerrilla groups in the 1980s and 1990s (see section 4).¹⁶

3. POLITICAL PARTIES

Unless otherwise indicated, information for this section was drawn from Political Handbook of the World 2007 (Oct. 2006, 969-973).

Presidential party: Peruvian Aprista Party (Partido Aprista Peruano, PAP)

Launched in 1930, the PAP was the Peruvian branch of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana, APRA) formed in Mexico in 1924. PAP is the oldest party in Peru.¹⁷

Legislative parties (in congress):

Union for Peru (Unión por el Perú, UPP)

Created for the 1995 campaign as a vehicle for former Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, the party received only 0.34 percent of the vote in 2000. Now the party with the greatest representation in congress, the UPP is headed by former military officer Ollanta Humala Tasso.

Change 90 (Cambio 90, C90)

C90 was created in 1990 around the candidacy of Alberto Fujimori. The current leader of C90 is Pablo Correa. The party headed a coalition in the 2000 elections and garnered 50 of the 120 seats. It was reduced to three seats in the 2001 elections.

Christian People's Party (Partido Popular Cristiano, PPC)

The PPC is the party of Lourdes Flores Nano, who secured 24 percent of the vote in the 2001 presidential race. It was founded in 1967, after splitting from the Christian Democratic Party (Partido Democrata Cristiano, PDC).

National Coordination of Independents (Coordinadora Nacional de Independientes, CNI)

The CNI is a grouping of independent candidates. The leader is Gonzalo Aguirre Arriz.

National Solidarity Party (Partido de Solidaridad Nacional)

This party was founded in 1999. Its leader, Luis Castañeda Lossio, withdrew from the presidential race in favour of Lourdes Flores Nano in 2001. He also withdrew from the 2006 presidential race.

National Restoration (Restauración Nacional, RN)

This small party won two seats in congress in 2006. Humberto Lay Sun is the party leader.¹⁸

New Majority (Nueva Mayoría, NM)

Founded in 1992, this party presented a joint presidential candidate with Change 90 in 1992 and 1995. Its leader is Jaime Yoshiyama Tanaka.

Peru Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Peruano, PNP)

Antauro Humala Tasso, brother of Ollanta Humala Tasso, is the leader of this party, the political branch of the Etnocacerista Movement (Movimiento Etnocacerista, ME).

Peru Possible (Perú Posible)

This party's then leader Alejandro Toledo secured 53 percent of the vote in the second ballot of the presidential election in 2001. The current party leader is David Waisman.¹⁹

Popular Action (Acción Popular)

Founded in 1956, this party held the presidency between 1963 and 1968, but won only three seats in the 2000 and 2001 elections.

We Are Peru (Somos Perú)

Leader Alberto Andrade Carmona was the presidential candidate in 2000. This party was born out of the We Are Lima (Somos Lima) movement, which helped Andrade Carmona become mayor of Lima in 1995.

Coalitions:

Nationalist Union Party (Partido Nacionalista Unión por el Perú, PNUP)

(Union for Peru, Peru Nationalist Party)

Coalition formed before the 2005 presidential campaign by Ollanta Humala Tasso.

National Unity (Unidad Nacional, UN)

(Christian People's Party, National Solidarity Party)

Coalition created for Lourdes Flores Nano in the 2001 campaign. Flores Nano finished third in the 2006 election.

Alliance for the Future (Alianza por el Futuro, AF)

(Change 90, New Majority)

Coalition of pro-Fujimori groups, formed in 2005. In the 2006 election, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, Keiko Fujimori, was elected to congress, winning more votes than any other candidate.²⁰

Center Front (Frente del Centro, FC)

(Popular Action, We Are Peru, National Coordination of Independents)

Formed before the 2006 election.

Other parties:

Independent Moralizing Front (Frente Independiente Moralizador, FIM); Decentralizing Coalition (Concertación Decentralista, CD); Democratic Force (Fuerza Democrática, FD); Popular Agricultural Front of Peru (Frente Popular Agricola del Perú, FREPAP); Country Project (Projecto Pais, PP); Andean Renaissance (Renacimiento Andino, RA); Socialist Party of Peru (Partido Socialista del Perú, PSP); Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso, APP); New Left Movement (Movimiento Nueva Izquierda, MNI); With Force Peru (Con Fuerza Perú, CFC); Democratic Reconstruction (Reconstrucción Democrática, RD); Peruvian Resurgence (Resurgimiento Peruano, RP); And It's Called Peru (Y se llama Perú); Let's Make Progress Peru (Progresemos Perú).

Not competing in 2006:

Christian Democratic Party (Partido Democrata Cristiano, PDC); Liberal Party (Partido Liberal, PL); He Delivers (Si Cumple); United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU); United Mariateguista Party (Partido Unificado Mariateguista, PUM); Peruvian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Peruano, PCP); Socialist Revolutionary Party (Partido Socialista Revolucionario, PSR); Popular Democratic Union (Unión Democrático Popular, UDP); Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores, PST); Nationalist Left Party (Partido de Izquierda Nacionalista, PIN); National Renovation Party (Partido Renovación Nacional, PRN); All for Victory (Todos por la Victoria, TV); Popular Solution (Solución Popular, SP).

4. ARMED GROUPS AND OTHER NON-STATE ACTORS

Shining path (Senderoso Luminoso)

This organization was founded in 1970 advocating the policies of the late Mao Zedong, and started armed operations in 1980.²¹ Its original leader, Abimael Guzman Reynoso (Comandante Gonzalo), was arrested in 1992.²² The current leaders are Margie Clavo Peralta (arrested in 1995) and Pedro Domingo Quinteros Ayllon (arrested in 1998).²³ The highest ranking leader not in captivity is Gabriel Macario.²⁴ Attacks by the Shining Path in rural areas resulted in the deaths of 13 police officers in December 2005.²⁵

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru)

Founded in 1984, this group started negotiations with the government in 1990 to end its armed struggle.²⁶ Leader Victor Polay Campos (Comandante Rolando) was arrested in 1992.²⁷ The highest ranking leader not in captivity is Hugo Avalleneda.²⁸ This group attacked the embassy of Japan in 1996 and held 600 people hostage.²⁹ Most hostages were released but more than 80 were held for 126 days³⁰.

The Peruvian Nationalist Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Peruano)

A paramilitary group known for its ultra-nationalist views, the Movement is headed by Antauro Igor Humala Tasso who was arrested in January 2005 following the occupation of a police station in the southern province of Andahuaylas.³¹ Humala Tasso is the brother of 2006 presidential candidate Ollanta Humala Tasso.³²

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Shining Path and Túpac Amaru guerrilla groups have been nearly destroyed.³³

ENDNOTES

¹Canada. 5 January 2007. [back]

²XE Currency Converter. 5 February 2007. [back]

³PHW 2007 Oct. 2006, 965; BBC 25 October 2006 [back]

⁴Ibid [back]

⁵PHW 2007 Oct. 2006, 968 [back]

⁶Ibid., 969 [back]

⁷The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3502 [back]

⁸PHW 2007 Oct. 2006, 970 [back]

⁹Ibid., 968 [back]

¹⁰The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3502 [back]

¹¹Ibid [back]

¹²Ibid., 3500; PHW 2007 Oct. 2006, 968 [back]

¹³Ibid. [back]

¹⁴The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3501 [back]

¹⁵Ibid [back]

¹⁶Ibid., 3503 [back]

¹⁷BBC 25 October 2006 [back]

¹⁸US 19 Dec. 2006 [back]

¹⁹Ibid [back]

²⁰Ibid., 969 [back]

²¹The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3513 [back]

²²Ibid., 3503 [back]

²³Ibid., 3513 [back]

²⁴US 19 Dec. 2006 [back]

²⁵The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3503 [back]

²⁶Ibid., 3513 [back]

²⁷Ibid [back]

²⁸US 19 Dec. 2006 [back]

²⁹PHW 2007 Oct. 2006, 967 [back]

³⁰Ibid., 967-96 [back]

³¹The Europa World Year Book 2006 10 June 2006, 3513 [back]

³²Ibid., 350 [back]

³³BBC 25 October 2006. [back]

REFERENCES

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 25 October 2006. "Country Profile: Peru." [Accessed 8 Jan. 2007]

Canada. 5 January 2007. Bank of Canada. "Daily Currency Converter." [Accessed 5 Jan. 2007]

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 17 October 2006. "Political Structure." Country Report: Peru. [Accessed 31 Jan. 2006]

The Europa World Year Book 2006. 10 June 2006. Vol. II. "Peru." London : Routledge.

Political Handbook of the World 2007 (PHW 2007). October 2006. "Peru." Edited by Arthur Banks, Thomas Muller and William Overstreet. Washington, DC : CQ Press.

Political Parties of the World. 2005. 6 th ed. "Peru." Edited by Bogdan Szajkowski. London : John Harper Publishing.

Transparency International (TI). 7 December 2006. Report on the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2006. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2006]

_____. 6 November 2006. Corruption Perceptions Index 2006. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2007]

United Nations (UN). 2006. UN Development Programme (UNDP). Human Development Report 2006. [Accessed 21 Nov. 2006]

United States (US). 19 December 2006. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)." Peru." The World Factbook. < https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pe.html> [Accessed 5 Jan. 2007]

XE.com. 5 February 2007. "Universal Currency Converter Results." [Accessed 5 Feb. 2007]