7.5-magnitude earthquake shakes north Peru

LIMA, Peru - A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck northern Peru on Sunday, destroying buildings including a church tower, injuring at least two people and sending shock waves across the region.

The strong quake hit at 5:52 am (1052 GMT) at a depth of 131 kilometers (81 miles), according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru.

It also caused damage in neighboring Ecuador.

The epicenter was 98 kilometers east of the small Peruvian town of Santa Maria de Nieva in the Peruvian Amazon -- a sparsely populated area inhabited by Amazonian indigenous people.

"The movement has been immense," the town's mayor, Hector Requejo, told RPP radio. He said some wood and adobe houses had collapsed.

The 14-meter (45-foot) tower of a colonial-era church collapsed in the La Jalca district, also in the Amazon.

Widespread power outages were reported, and the Civil Defense department reported two injured.

The deep quake was felt in almost half of the country, including coastal and Andean regions, and the capital Lima.

"We have all taken to the streets, we are very scared," a listener called Lucia told RPP radio from the northern town of Chota.

"All my solidarity with the people of Amazonas in the face of the strong earthquake," Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said on Twitter. "You are not alone, brothers."

He said he had ordered all relevant ministries "to take immediate actions."

In Lima, more than 1,000 kilometers south of the epicenter, the tremor was felt with less intensity but lasted long enough to prompt some people to take to the streets. 

No tsunami warning was issued by US monitors after the quake.

The Peruvian capital, with a population of 10 million, had been shaken hours before by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. 

There were no casualties after the first quake, which had its epicenter west of Callao, Lima's neighboring port.

Peru is shaken by at least 400 perceptible earthquakes every year, as it is located in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire -- an area of extensive seismic activity that extends along the west coast of the American continent. 

A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake on August 15, 2007, struck Peru's central coast, causing more than 500 deaths.

Agence France-Presse

Coronavirus spread 'still accelerating' in Brazil, Peru, Chile: WHO

International health authorities expressed concern Tuesday over signs the spread of the new coronavirus is "still accelerating" in Brazil, Peru and Chile.

"In South America, we are particularly concerned that the number of new cases reported last week in Brazil was the highest for a seven-day period, since the outbreak began," said Carissa Etienne, director of the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

"Both Peru and Chile are also reporting a high incidence, a sign that transmission is still accelerating in these countries," she said at a weekly briefing.

The Pan American Health Organization, which serves as the regional office for the World Health Organization, has been monitoring the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With a total 2.4 million cases -- out of 5 million globally -- and more than 143,000 deaths from COVID-19 reported as of May 25, Latin America has outpaced Europe and the United States in the number of daily infections. 

The region is now "no doubt" the epicenter of the pandemic, Etienne said during the PAHO weekly briefing. 

She called for countries to keep up their fight to curb the spread of infections, which experts estimate far exceed the official count. 

"For most countries in the Americas, now is not the time to relax restrictions or scale back preventive strategies," she said. 

The PAHO recommended a combination of social distancing measures, testing and health system preparations to combat the coronavirus, which was declared a pandemic on March 11 after it appeared in China late last year. 

Etienne said Brazil's daily COVID-19 death toll is expected to peak at around 1,020 a day by June 22, citing the IHME model from the University of Washington in the United States. 

The model predicted two weeks ago that Brazil would see 88,305 coronavirus deaths by August 4, with a range between 30,302 deaths and 193,786 deaths possible.

With nearly 375,000 cases, Brazil now has the world's biggest coronavirus caseload after the United States. It has had 23,473 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Agence France-Presse

Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia denounce decision on Amazon domain

LIMA - The presidents of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia criticized a recent decision by the organization that manages internet protocol to grant global retailer Amazon Inc the rights to the .amazon domain.

Amazon Inc has been seeking the exclusive rights to the .amazon domain name since 2012. But Amazon basin countries - including Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia - have argued it refers to their geographic region and should not be the monopoly of one company.

The four leaders - Peru's Martin Vizcarra, Colombia's Ivan Duque, Ecuador's Lenin Moreno and Bolivia's Evo Morales - vowed to join forces to protect their countries from what they described as inadequate governance of the internet.

Last week, the global Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees internet addresses, said it decided to proceed with the designation requested by Amazon Inc pending a 30-day period of public comment.

The decision sets "a grave precedent by prioritizing private commercial interests above the considerations of state public policies, the rights on indigenous people and the preservation of the Amazon," Vizcarra, Duque, Moreno and Morales said in a joint statement on Sunday after a gathering in Lima of the Andean Community regional bloc.

They added that Latin American and Caribbean countries agreed in 2013 to reject any attempt to appropriate the Amazon name or any other name that refers to geography, history, culture or nature without the consent of countries in the region.

Brazil, home to the largest swath of the Amazon forest, has also lamented ICANN's decision.

Amazon.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular working hours.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Americas' top human rights body hears first LGBT torture case

BOGOTA - An eight-year legal battle by a gay Peruvian man who accused police of raping him went before the Americas' leading human rights organization on Thursday in a landmark case to determine whether the alleged crime was torture.

Lawyers for Luis Alberto Rojas said he was arbitrarily detained by police in northern Peru in 2008. While in custody, police forced him to strip, hit him and raped him with a truncheon.

After his release, Rojas filed a criminal complaint against the police for sexual violence, abuse of authority and torture but his case was dismissed by state prosecutors, his lawyers said.

But three human rights groups, including UK-based anti-torture group REDRESS, took Rojas' case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2009 - with opening arguments finally heard on Thursday.

Lawyer Carla Ferstman said it is the first time the commission was being asked to rule on a complaint of torture against a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

"Our view is that in this type of context where an individual is targeted because of his sexual orientation, the abuse by police amounts to torture," Ferstman, who heads REDRESS, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Peruvian police were not immediately available for comment.

Ferstman said when the complaint was first filed no one took it seriously.

"LGBTI individuals are not only subjected to this type of ill-treatment in custody. Also, often they are not believed, they are not considered to be credible, they are laughed at," Ferstman said.

Speaking at the hearing, Ivan Bazan, a state prosecutor representing the Peruvian government, said Rojas was lawfully detained by the police and that a proper and timely investigation was carried out.

"The state took steps to clarify the facts ... in the end it was understood that the facts didn't qualify for the crime to be comprehended as torture," Bazan said, adding that the case was closed.

The complaint calls for the Peruvian government to give financial compensation to Rojas and prosecute those responsible.

It also seeks guarantees to change Peru's laws to better protect the rights of LGBT people and tackle the discrimination they can face by police.

A 2015 study by the Peruvian government found that 90 percent of LGBT residents in and around the capital Lima had been victims of some type of violence, of which nearly 19 percent was at the hands of state security agents.

The IACHR, part of the 35-member Organization of American States (OAS), could issue non-binding recommendations to the Peruvian government, Ferstman said.

She added the IACHR could also recommend that the case goes before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to rule on, a process that could take years.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Peru may bar presidential candidate for plagiarism

LIMA - Peru's electoral committee said on Wednesday it might bar a leading presidential candidate from the race if a university in Spain verifies plagiarism allegations against him.

Cesar Acuña, a wealthy former governor and businessman who is tied for second place in recent polls, has denied claims that he copied the work of others without attribution in his 2009 doctoral thesis on education.

The Complutense University of Madrid opened an inquiry after Twitter users accused Acuña of plagiarism based on several pages of the thesis.

"If they withdraw or invalidate his diploma or title, obviously that would mean falsehood ... he would be removed if it's falsehood," said Francisco Tavara, the president of Peru's National Jury of Elections.

Acuña, who once boasted at a book fair that he never reads, owns three private universities in Peru and has made improving education a central campaign pledge. In December he told Reuters he believed he was gaining in polls because Peruvians want an honest, hard-working leader.

Eliminating Acuña from the presidential race could boost the chances of front-running candidate Keiko Fujimori, who competes with him for key votes from the poor. It could also benefit other lesser-known candidates, hoping to garner enough support to face Fujimori in a runoff.

"I deny the accusations and the attempt to use this matter to invalidate my candidacy," Acuña told a news conference where he declined to take questions. "All authors consulted for my work are included as bibliographic references."

Peruvians will head to polls on April 10 for the first presidential election since a decade-long mining boom ended. Acuña and other candidates have vowed to bolster weak economic growth and crack down on crime that has risen under President Ollanta Humala.

Fujimori, the conservative daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori, has been drawing about a third of voter support in recent polls but needs at least 50 percent of ballots to avoid a second-round contest in June.

Acuña had 13 percent support in an Ipsos survey this month, matching investor favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski who has slipped in recent polls.

Popular in part because of his rags-to-riches story, Acuña has shaken off previous setbacks ranging from domestic violence allegations, which he denies, to criticism for putting his children and brother on his party's list of congressional candidates.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Major 7.0-magnitude quake strikes Peru: USGS

WASHINGTON - A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Peru Sunday, US experts said.

The quake hit at 2321 GMT 42 kilometers (26 miles) east-northeast of Tambo at a depth of 58.9 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.

Located 471 kilometers southeast of the capital Lima, it hit at at 23:21 GMT.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned that earthquakes of this size "sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within 100 kilometers of the earthquake epicenter."

"Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action," it added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com