News stories by Ángel Páez

LIMA, Apr 19 (IPS) - Nicolás Maduro was recognised as president-elect of Venezuela by a Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) emergency summit held in Lima to discuss the situation in the highly polarised country, where a narrow electoral result triggered social and political tension.

LIMA, Mar 22 (IPS) - The Peruvian legislature is investigating a contract with an Israeli company, entered into by the previous government for advising and training the military, after audit bodies found irregularities in how it was signed.

The armed forces of Peru have launched a campaign to rescue at least 50 children who are in the hands of the last surviving remnant of the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.

The capture in Peru of the last major leader of the Maoist rebel group Sendero Luminoso is a mortal blow to the movement that managed to survive thanks to its connection with the production of coca and cocaine in the north of the country.

The Peruvian government will propose that the Organisation of American States review the powers of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and is seeking the support of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The move is a reaction against a lawsuit brought against it by the IACHR.

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala is taking an increasingly hard-line stance against protests, and is losing important allies less than five months into his term.

Local residents and authorities in the northern Peruvian region of Cajamarca say they will continue to protest the Conga gold mine, despite the state of emergency declared by President Ollanta Humala.

The armed forces in Peru, which already have an active role in fighting drug trafficking, are being given greater responsibility for maintaining public order under the government of President Ollanta Humala. They will now also be expected to crack down on illegal mining, and to intervene in social protests.

'I caught tuberculosis, but I'm lucky because it's been cured,' says Hernán Arévalo from his bed in the new hospital at the Peruvian prison of Lurigancho, one of the most crowded and dangerous in Latin America. 'Before, whoever came in here was unlikely to get out alive.'

The new president of Peru, retired lieutenant colonel Ollanta Humala, promised to make the fight against poverty and marginalisation the top priority of his administration. But his inaugural address was short on specifics, according to activists and analysts.