News in and from Peru

Peru was one of the first countries to sign the world’s first legally-binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations in July and opened for signature on September 20, 2017 on the margins of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.

For decades Peru fought a fierce war on all illegal drugs no matter how beneficial some substances might be in certain cases. But an incident at the beginning of this year lead to a rethinking of this position in some Peruvian politicians at least regarding the usage of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Fitch Ratings, one of the three big credit rating agencies, published their latest assessment on Peru’s credit ratings. Result: everything remains unchanged with a stable outlook.

For weeks classes were suspended in Peru due to a controversial teacher’s strike. After long and intense negotiations teachers are back at work, students returned to school and the contentious education reform is back on track. Everything good? Nowhere near.

Renting or buying prime office space in metropolitan cities around the globe is usually extremely expensive. Latin American major cities however still offer much more affordable options.

Last Saturday, September 9, 2017, the Latin America Ceremony of the World Travel Awards, the “Oscar of the Travel Industry" that acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence in the tourism industry, took place at the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

Yesterday, Thursday September 7, Peruvian Congress gave President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski the permission to officially travel to the US and Vatican City from September 15 to 23, 2017.

The organization of the Mistura 2017, South America’s largest gastronomic fair, was quite chaotic so far. But now with a new location and a new date it seems everything is on track again and the first more concrete details are announced.

During colonial times often referred to as the “City of Gardens”, today the Peruvian capital Lima could rather be name city of concrete, asphalt, dirt and dust. Accessible green urban spaces and trees are rare and mainly concentrated in the “better” districts such as San Isidro, Miraflores and San Borja.

After years of unrest, violence, poverty and uncertainty in the 1980s and 1990s where everyone who could, left the country. Over the past 2 decades Peru made enormous progress and developed into a politically and economically stable country with huge growth rates often topping its neighbors on different levels.