Portal:Peru

The departments of Peru (Spanish: departamentos), informally called regions (Spanish: regiones), are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the country. According to the Organic Law of Regional Governments, each department is administered by a regional government and a legislature responsible for administration, economic planning, and public services. These governments operate with autonomy while still coordinating with national authorities. Each department is led by a regional governor, who is elected by popular vote for a four-year term, and is responsible for implementing regional policies, managing budgets, and overseeing infrastructure projects. The governor is supported by a regional legislative council, composed of elected representatives from different provinces within the department. This council approves budgets, monitors public investments, and ensures government accountability.

There are 24 departments in total, as well as two provinces that operate under a special regime: Callao and Lima. The former does not belong to any department since 1836, but is nevertheless administered by a regional government of its own. The latter is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, which is equal in status to a regional government. (Full article...)

The city of Arequipa is the capital of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of around 800,000 it is the second most populous city of the country. Arequipa lies in the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 2,380 meters (7740 feet) above sea level, overseen by the snow-capped volcano El Misti. The city has many colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock, from which it gets the nickname La Ciudad Blanca ("The White City"). (more...)

The Battle of Ollantaytambo took place in January 1537 between the forces of the Inca emperor Manco Inca and a Spanish expedition led by Hernando Pizarro during the Spanish conquest of Peru. A former ally of the Spaniards, Manco Inca rebelled in May 1536 and laid siege to a Spanish garrison in the city of Cusco. To end the stand-off, the besieged mounted a raid against the emperor headquarters, located in the town of Ollantaytambo. The expedition was commanded by Hernando Pizarro and included 100 Spaniards and some 30,000 Indian auxiliaries against an Inca army of more than 30,000. (more...)

• February 12, 1903 - Historian Jorge Basadre author of Historia de la República (History of the Republic) is born.

• February 12, 1939 - At the South American Championship the national football team wins its first Copa América.

• February 14, 2009 - The Milk of Sorrow, a film by Claudia Llosa wins a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

• February 25, 1825 - The Coat of arms is adopted as national symbolic emblem of Peru.

• February 28, 1995 - End of the Cenepa War, the third war in the territorial dispute between Peru and Ecuador in the 20th century.

Daniel Alomía Robles (3 January 1871 – 17 July 1942) was a Peruvian composer and ethnomusicologist. He is best known for composing the song "El Cóndor Pasa" in 1913 as part of a zarzuela — a musical play that alternates between spoken and sung parts — of the same name. This song was based on Andean folk songs and is possibly the best known Peruvian song, partly due to the worldwide success that the melody obtained when it was used by Simon & Garfunkel as their music for "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)", although that song has different lyrics. (Full article...)

• ... that some people chanted "USA, USA!" and others waved Peruvian flags at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV?
• ... that the white-tailed jay found in Ecuador and Peru was once thought to have been brought to Mexico by pre-Columbian trade?
• ... that Swedish naval officer Axel Lagerbielke was imprisoned in Lima for over a year, held in Callao and eventually escaped from Panama on an English packet boat to Jamaica?
• ... that a bust of former Peruvian president Justiniano Borgoño was stolen from its pedestal by thieves?
• ... that the Saxe–Goldstein hypothesis has been used to explain burial practices in Greece, Australia, Madagascar and Peru?
• ... that sisters Talia and Tori DellaPeruta, college teammates at North Carolina, play soccer professionally for Sampdoria?
• ... that Peru's fishing industry is the world's largest producer of fishmeal and fish oil?
• ... that the Balconcillo mutiny is considered to be the first coup d'état in the history of Peru?

• ...that the city of Cusco (pictured), the former capital of the Inca Empire, has the highest ultraviolet light level on Earth?
• ...that in the 1990s, the Peruvian economy underwent a process of liberalization which discarded protectionism and privatized state companies?
• ...that in the 1941 Ecuadorian–Peruvian war a Peruvian paratroop unit carried out the first airborne combat operation in the Western Hemisphere?
• ...that it has been suggested that climate changes provoked by an El Niño event played an important part in the collapse of the Moche civilization?
• ...that in 1984, during the internal conflict in Peru, members of the Peruvian Army massacred 123 men, women and children in the town of Putis?

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