Stories written by Milagros Salazar
Milagros Salazar started her career with IPS in June 2006. She specialises in social and environmental conflicts, in particular those relating to the mining, oil and gas industries in Peru. She also writes about the illegal production and trade of cocaine throughout country. Salazar also writes for the political pages of the daily La República, published in Lima. Since 1993, she has been working as an editor and correspondent for several national dailies, including Expreso and El Peruano. Born in Lima in 1976, Salazar holds a bachelor’s degree in social communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and a master’s degree in human rights from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú. She has also pursued further study on political governance as part of programmes sponsored by the U.S.-based George Washington University.

PERU: Government under Fire for Waiving Environmental Certificates for Dams

By Milagros Salazar
The Peruvian government has been forced to offer talks with governors, the ombudsperson's office and Catholic Church leaders, to stem the outcry over two emergency decrees that waive the requirement for environmental certificates for 33 investment projects, including hydroelectric dams in the Amazon rainforest.
Widows of civil war victims, during a meeting on reparations. Credit: Courtesy of CMAN

RIGHTS-PERU: At Last, Reparations for Civil War Victims

By Milagros Salazar
Peru will begin to pay individual monetary reparations to victims and survivors of the 1980-2000 counterinsurgency war, with top priority put on elderly people in remote villages in the country's impoverished highlands, where most of the human rights violations took place.

HEALTH-PERU: Cost of Medicines Out of Control

By Milagros Salazar
When the price of medicines for treating cancer soared by up to 64 percent in 2010, the Peruvian government set up a watchdog commission that will also monitor prices of drugs for diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
National Conference on Rural Education and Development Credit: Foro Educativo

PERU: Rural Education Reflects Ethnic, Socioeconomic Inequalities

By Milagros Salazar
In rural villages in the Amazon district of Datem de Marañón in northern Peru, teachers often have 70 students in their one-room schoolhouses and travel two or three days to get to their jobs, said Emir Masegkai, describing the challenges of providing education in remote areas of this South American country.
Caudalosa workers clean up mining tailings in the Opamayo River. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

PERU: Environmental Crime Doesn’t Pay

By Milagros Salazar
A legislative bill in Peru aims to channel the fines for environmental crimes to repair the damages to rivers, soils and other public goods that directly affect the population. Until now, the fines collected have ended up elsewhere in the government.
Caudalosa workers clean up mining tailings in the Opamayo River - Milagros Salazar/IPS

Environmental Crime Doesn't Pay in Peru

By Milagros Salazar and - -
The Peruvian Environment Ministry's public prosecutor will present an initiative in February to channel fines to pay for the damaging effects of mining, logging and oil drilling.
Alto Huayabamba in San Martín, Peru. Credit: AMPA

PERU: Local Communities Protect Their Amazon

By Milagros Salazar
San Martín is one of the three most deforested Amazon regions in Peru. But now local residents and non-governmental organisations have joined with local and regional authorities to defend the flora, fauna and water resources and halt the destruction of the rainforests.

MINING-PERU: Doe Run’s Latest Move

By Milagros Salazar
The U.S. mining and metallurgical company Doe Run has once again challenged the Peruvian government. The Renco Group, of which it is a subsidiary, notified the government of its plans to start an international arbitration process, invoking the free trade agreement between this South American country and the United States.
Alto Huayabamba, in San Martín, Peru. - AMPA

Local Communities Protect Their Amazon

By Milagros Salazar and - -
Residents and authorities of a Peruvian Amazon region take rainforest conservation into their own hands.

PERU: Sacrificing the Rainforest on the Altar of Energy

By Milagros Salazar
The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study.

PERU: Decades On, Women Remain Last in Line for Justice

By Milagros Salazar
Investigations of the raping of women in the 1980s during Peru's counterinsurgency war have ground to a halt, even though the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission filed the respective complaints in 2004. Not one sentence has been handed down for the soldiers alleged to have committed the rapes, while more victims come forward.
A load of fresh fish near Pisco, Peru. Credit: Photo Stock

Legal Shortcuts Trap the Peruvian Anchovy

By Milagros Salazar
Exports of fishmeal made from Peruvian anchoveta, or anchovy (Engraulis ringens), is so lucrative that fishers have sought -- and found -- legal shortcuts to obtain permits that would have been impossible through formal channels. This practice is exhausting even the contingency stock that the government had set aside.
Peruvian peasant women working in the potato fields. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

LATIN AMERICA: Rural Women, Success Stories and Exploitation

By Milagros Salazar
The traditional image of rural women in Latin America is shifting, from one of subsistence farmers raising their families to that of women playing a growing role in small- and large-scale commercial and productive activities. But behind that change lie both success stories and exploitation.
Peruvian miners at work. Credit: Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines

PERU: Resistance to Increasing Mining Royalties

By Milagros Salazar
As metal prices continue to soar, the debate on a tax on windfall earnings of mining companies in Peru and an increase in the royalties they pay has been revived.
The desolate highlands of Piura, Peru. Credit: Courtesy of Fedepaz

PERU: Mineral-Rich Highlands Lack Legal Protection

By Milagros Salazar
More than 11 percent of Peruvian territory is distributed among mining concessions. Those mining blocks can include moors, river sources, and even protected natural areas.
The highland plateau of Piura, Peru. - Courtesy of Fedepaz

Peru's Highlands Lack Legal Protection

By Milagros Salazar and - -
Land-use regulations could put a halt to mining concessions in areas of Peru with high ecological value, like the highland plateaus of the north.
Relatives of the victims after the ruling was handed down. Credit: Milagros Salazar /IPS

RIGHTS-PERU: Another Controversial Acquittal of Members of Military

By Milagros Salazar
Sufficient evidence was presented to sentence the members of the Peruvian army responsible for the killings of 12 men, women, children and elderly persons from two highlands villages in Peru. But after a 24-year wait for justice, a court acquitted the defendants this week.

PERU: After Toxic Mine Spill, Locals Demand Both Jobs and Cleanup

By Milagros Salazar
Four months after Peru's worst toxic spill of mining waste, workers at the Caudalosa mine are demanding that it be reopened, while local communities want more cleanup of the rivers they depend on for water supplies.
The Apurímac River as it passes through Espinar province. Credit: Municipality of Espinar

PERU: Neighbouring Regions Clash Over Water Diversion

By Milagros Salazar
With one death and several injured to show for it, two regions in southern Peru remain tangled in conflict over water from one of the country's main rivers. A project would divert some of the river's flow from the Cuzco region to neighbouring Arequipa.
Moriana Hernández at the seminar on Education: Beyond the Goals Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

LATIN AMERICA: And Now For Non-Sexist Education

By Milagros Salazar
Women in Latin America have broken down barriers in education, and in several countries have more years of education than men. But the task now is to make sure that education reduces, rather than fuels, inequality between men and women.
A stretch of new highway to be flooded by the Inambari dam near Puno, Peru. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

PERU: A Highway Built to Be Flooded

By Milagros Salazar
Construction workers are fighting the clock to finish the last stretch of the Southern Inter-Oceanic Highway, in southeastern Peru, apparently unaware that about 100 kilometres of this road connecting to Brazil will be covered by water once the Inambari hydroelectric dam is built nearby.
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