Stories written by Ángel Páez
Ángel Páez has extensive experience working in Peru as an investigative journalist on stories about corruption, drug trade, political violence, arms trade and other forms of organised crime. He joined IPS as a correspondent from his country in 2005. Born in 1963, Páez studied journalism at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima and started working at the daily newspaper La República in 1985. In 1990 he founded the Unidad de Investigación, a collective of journalists that uncovered the corruption scandals surrounding the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). Páez was the first to publish a story on one of those cases, which later led the Chilean courts to hand in the perpetrator to the Peruvian authorities. A correspondent in Lima for the Argentinean newspaper Clarín and the Mexican magazine Proceso, Páez is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington-based organisation that promotes global investigations.

PERU: Rights of Isolated Indigenous Communities Violated by Amazon Pipeline

By Ángel Páez
A report by the Office of the People's Defender in Peru states that the basic rights of indigenous communities living near the Camisea gas field have been affected by the foreign companies operating in the country's Amazon jungle region.

ENVIRONMENT-PERU: Congress to Investigate Amazon Pipeline

By Ángel Páez
The Peruvian Congress will investigate the star project of foreign investors in Peru: the Camisea pipeline that carries natural gas from the heart of the Amazon jungle to the Pacific coast, built at a cost of 1.6 billion dollars.

PERU: ‘Dirty War’ Allegations Cast Shadow on Nationalist Candidate

By Ángel Páez
After unexpectedly shooting to the top of the polls in Peru, anti-establishment presidential candidate Ollanta Humala has seen his popularity drop due to questions about his possible involvement in the "dirty war" against dissidents.

PERU: Illegal Arms Deals Not Just a Thing of the Past

By Ángel Páez
Irregular arms deals were among the most lucrative business activities in Peru during former president Alberto Fujimori’s decade in power. And according to reports, they have continued to be, in the nearly five years that current President Alejandro Toledo has been in office.

POLITICS-PERU: Nationalist Candidate Humala, an Unknown Quantity

By Ángel Páez
Since Peruvian nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Bolivia's new President Evo Morales met earlier this month in Caracas, the press in Lima has taken to calling them the "Andean troika" because of their apparent ideological affinity. But it is still hard to tell whether retired army officer Humala will take a turn to the left if he is elected president.

PERU: Impunity a Hot-Button Issue in the Scramble for Votes

By Ángel Páez
For the first time ever, members of the armed forces and police will be able to vote in elections in Peru, next April. These 150,000 newly enfranchised voters are attracting special attention from the candidates, which has given rise to fears that those accused of violating human rights may stand a better chance of escaping justice.

DRUGS-PERU: Shining Path Lashes Out Against Coca Eradication

By Ángel Páez
The day after eight antidrug police officers were killed by Shining Path insurgents in the town of Aucayacu in the jungles of the Peruvian valley of Alto Huallaga, new graffiti appeared along the walls lining the main freeway in the capital: "Fujimori Yes, Terrorism No".

POLITICS-PERU: The Usual Suspects

By Ángel Páez
A mantle of corruption and impunity has begun to cast a shadow over the campaign for Peru's April presidential elections, despite the fact that the candidates have not even been officially registered yet.

PERU: Pro-Indigenous Retired Colonel Sees Meteoric Rise in the Polls

By Ángel Páez
Retired army colonel Ollanta Humala has experienced an unexpected surge in the polls for Peru's April 2006 elections. He now has a 22 percent rating, putting him just three points behind the current front-runner, right-wing candidate Lourdes Flores Nano, with 25 percent.

CORRUPTION-PERU: Drug Trafficking Digs In Its Heels

By Ángel Páez
Seventeen months after the U.S. government added Peruvian airline executive Fernando Zevallos to its list of international drug trafficking bosses, the Peruvian judicial system plucked up the courage to order his arrest and take a closer look at this illegal trade.

CORRUPTION-PERU: Drug Trafficking Digs In Its Heels

By Ángel Páez
Seventeen months after the U.S. government included Peruvian airline businessman Fernando Zevallos on its list of international drug trafficking bosses, the Peruvian judicial system plucked up the courage to order his arrest and has begun to take a closer look at the social influence wielded by this illegal trade.

CORRUPTION-PERU: Fujimori Family Secret Bank Accounts Uncovered

By Ángel Páez
Anti-corruption authorities in Peru have discovered numerous secret bank accounts holding up to 4.5 million dollars in the names of former Peruvian ambassador to Japan Víctor Aritomi and his wife Rosa Fujimori, former president Alberto Fujimori's sister.

PERU-CHILE: No End in Sight to Arms Race

By Ángel Páez
Peru has once again become an attractive market for arms manufacturers and merchants, since President Alejandro Toledo modified his policy to reduce military spending in December 2004, with the creation of the National Defence Fund to purchase, repair and upgrade the country's military equipment.

PERU: Prosecutors Seek 225 Years in Prison for Fujimori

By Ángel Páez
The Peruvian courts are preparing to seek the extradition of former president Alberto Fujimori, currently in police custody in Chile, who faces 21 charges that would bring a total of 225 years in prison, based on the sentences sought by the country's anti-corruption prosecutors.

PERU: Fujimori’s Carefully Orchestrated Trip to Chile

By Ángel Páez
Authorities in Peru believe that former president Alberto Fujimori (1990- 2000) will use his two-month stay in Chile - the estimated duration of his extradition trial on charges of human rights abuses and corruption - to organise a campaign aimed at allowing him to run for president

PERU: Afro-Descendants Fight Ingrained Racism, Invisibility

By Ángel Páez
There is a saying in Peru that everyone has a bit of either "Inga" or "Mandinga" in them, meaning that all Peruvians have some indigenous (Inca) or African blood.

PERU: Veteran Soldiers, Police Recruited for Iraq by U.S. Contractors

By Ángel Páez
"Piraña", a former army sergeant who fought the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) Maoist guerrillas in the jungles of Peru in the 1990s, decided at the last minute not to travel to Iraq with around 200 former members of the military and police recruited by the U.S.-based private security firm Triple Canopy.

PERU: Veteran Soldiers, Police Recruited for Iraq by U.S. Contractors

By Ángel Páez
"Piraña", a former Peruvian army sergeant who fought the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) Maoist guerrillas in the jungles of Peru in the 1990s, decided at the last minute not to travel to Iraq with around 200 former members of the military and police recruited by the U.S.-based private security firm Triple Canopy.

PERU: Fujimori, Five Years Thumbing His Nose at Justice

By Ángel Páez
Former president Alberto Fujimori's announcement that he plans to present his candidacy for the April 2006 presidential elections in Peru highlights the futility of nearly five years of attempts by the government of Alejandro Toledo to secure his extradition from Japan.

PERU: Shining Path Leaders Back in the Dock

By Ángel Páez
Like a pair of lovers in their twilight years, Abimael Guzmán and Elena Iparraguirre, the number one and two leaders of the Maoist rebel group Shining Path in Peru, were briefly reunited Thursday, thanks to a terrorism retrial that started this week.
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