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CARACAS — The vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and alleged drug lord Diosdado Cabello accused the United States on Wednesday of being behind the impeachment and arrest of Peru’s far-left president Pedro Castillo. Police arrested Castillo on Wednesday after he unsuccessfully attempted to stage a coup in his country on Wednesday by unconstitutionally dissolving Congress and the court system. Rather than execute his orders, the police arrested Castillo, and Congress impeached him out of power.

Relatively speaking, the Incas are recent history. One unfortunate consequence of the fame of the Incas is that they tend to crowd out the long and rich history of the region with its many kingdoms and civilizations that went before. Some pre-Inca cultures were incorporated into the Inca Empire, while others were ancient history by the time the Incas appeared on the scene. The oldest city now known in the Americas is that of Caral. It flourished at around the same time as the Egyptian pyramids were being built. The ruins of 'Sacred City of Caral-Supe' or simply 'Caral,' is...

ROME - Italy’s Justice Ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape verdict in part by arguing that the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim. The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy, prompting a flash mob Monday outside the Ancona court, where protesters shouted “Shame!” and held up signs saying “indignation.” The appeals sentence was handed down in 2017 — by an all-female panel — but the reasons behind it only emerged publicly when Italy’s high court annulled it on March 5 and ordered a retrial....

The FARC and the Quest for Surface to Air Missiles By Douglas Farah SNIPPET: "The Miami Herald today reports that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the military and police." SNIPPET: "It is not a...

WASHINGTON – Nature turned against one of America's early civilizations 3,600 years ago, when researchers say earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru. "This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement. Moseley and colleagues were studying civilization of the Supe Valley along the Peruvian coast, which was established up to 5,800...

Cute little fellar.

A suspicious package found on a bus in Peru turned out to contain a mysterious and massive animal jawbone, officials announced on Tuesday. Police who investigated the bus's cargo hold said they noticed the package because it had no identifying marks and was oddly heavy. "They were worried about its weight, opened it, and found the fossil," Kleber Jimenez, a local police officer, told the Reuters news service. Pablo de la Vera Cruz, an archaeologist at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa, initially identified the 19-pound (8.6-kilogram) jawbone via police photos as perhaps belonging to a Triceratops, according...

Prehistoric tools, weapons discovered in Peruvian Andes AFP August 20, 2006 LIMA -- A team of Peruvian and US archaeologists have discovered prehistoric stone tools and weapons some 10,000 years old in an Andean town, the National Institute of Culture announced Friday. Stone axes, spearheads, and weapons were found in the main square of San Pedro de Chavin de Huantar, an Andean town some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Lima, officials said. "This discovery represents exceptional evidence of the presence of inhabitants in the Pleistocene era," the Institute said in a statement. The Pleistocene went from about 1.6 million...

Lima, Peru (AHN) - A man died of poisoning this week after drinking a miracle herb potion to ward off his family's bad luck. The Peruvian government has since warned that not every person who calls himself a medicine man or shaman is trustworthy. The government cautioned its citizens to steer clear of secretive or street-corner practices, warning that they may be given potions that could make them sick or even kill them. The country's Health Ministry said in a statement, "Avoid consuming brews made with herbs of questionable origin or hallucinogenic plants prepared by so-called Shamans." Many newspapers in...

Wanna read a great Horatio Alger story? Except that in Latin America, it’s a far more radical thing: President Alejandro Toledo, the outgoing president of Peru, a staunch, effective opponent of leftist Chavista populism, has decided to go back to being a shoeshine boy for charity, doing $100 shoeshines on behalf of the the shoeshiners pension fund. Toledo leaves office on July 28, and although he had plenty to be proud of as Peru’s first full-blooded Indian president, he was never ashamed of his humble roots ... Toledo was a wonderful president of Peru who openly challenged Venezuelan dictator Hugo...

PANAMA CITY - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reignited a war of words with Peruvian President-elect Alan Garcia on Friday, calling him a "lap dog" of the United States. Chavez's comments during a two-day visit to Panama came after verbal sparring between the two leaders had calmed, and as Venezuela lobbies for a seat on the U.N. Security Council — a bid Garcia earlier this month suggested he might support. "His owner is in Washington, he's a lap dog, a tool of the empire," said Chavez, who frequently refers to the United States as "the empire." In comments to reporters, Chavez...

Peruvians elect a president By TYLER BRIDGEStbridges@MiamiHerald.com June 4, 2006 LIMA - Some 16 million Peruvians began voting at 8 a.m. this morning (Central Standard Time) to select their next president. They have a stark choice: center-left Alan García, a former president, or ultra-nationalist leftist Ollanta Humala, a retired lieutenant colonel. It is an unappealing choice for nearly half the voters. García's presidency 20 years ago ended with food shortages, hyperinflation, accusations of corruption and a spreading insurgency by the Shining Path guerrilla. García, 57, said he has learned from his mistakes. Humala has provoked fears that he will turn...

August 20, 2005 Peruvian pyramids rival the pharaohs' By Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent RUINS on Peru’s desert coast dated to some 4,700 years ago suggest an earlier focus of civilisation than any so far identified in the New World. The site of Caral, in the Supe Valley north of Lima, covers 66 hectares (165 acres) and includes pyramids 21m (70ft) high arranged around a large plaza. “What really sets Caral apart is its age,” Roger Atwood reports in Archaeology. “Carbon dating has revealed that its pyramids are contemporary with those of Egypt and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.” These are among...

Peruvian family claims Machu Picchu LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Peru's poor Zavaleta family has only one thing to say to the thousands of tourists who trek along the Inca trail to the renowned citadel Machu Picchu every year: "Hey you, get off our land!" The family says it is the lawful owner of a large part of the Machu Picchu sanctuary, Peru's most famous national treasure, and will start proceedings next week to sue the state for recognition of its ownership rights. "The Zavaletas bought the land in 1944 and have title deeds that date from 1898," their lawyer Fausto...

Glacier crack places Peruvian city in peril 15:46 15 April 03 NewScientist.com news service The city of Huaraz lies at the end of several valleys headed by glacial lakes (Image: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and ASTER Science Team) A glacial flood is threatening to sweep away a Peruvian city, satellite imagery has revealed. An ominous crack has been spotted in a large glacier high in the Peruvian Andes. The glacier feeds into Lake Palcacocha, which is at the head of a valley leading down to the city of Huaraz. NASA scientists are warning that if a large glacier chunk breaks off and falls...

Three states are electing state officers (governor, attorney general, et al) in 2003, and so far Republicans are fielding a more ethnically diverse slate of candidates than are Democrats.  Currently no ethnic minority holds statewide office in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky, but Republicans have the potential to put forward four nominees and Democrats two, both in Mississippi.KentuckyRepublican Osi Onyekwuluje is a (black) Nigerian immigrant seeking the office of state auditor.  Onyekwuluje (pronounced On-yay-kool-oo-jay) came to the United States as a teenager, obtained a law degree in 1987 and has served the public as an assistant state attorney general, Kentucky...

Explorer: Legendary El Dorado Pinpointed By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News normalize font   |   increase font Aug. 9 — The fabled treasure of El Dorado may lie in tunnels and caves at the bottom of a lake in the Peruvian Amazon, according to a Polish-Italian explorer who has returned from a three-week reconnaissance trip in search of the legendary city. Called Paititi by the Incas and El Dorado by the Spaniards, the mythical city is thought to have been the last place of refuge for the Incas when they fled with their treasures ahead of the advancing Spanish...