Peru

A guide to recent economic, social and political developments in Peru, viewed through the eyes of Peruvians themselves.

John Crabtree emphasizes the depth of the social divide in a country where a vast amount of the population live in poverty.

He analyses the weakness of democratic institutions and the lack of political power of the majority of men and women in the context of Peru's poor human-rights record in recent years.

Peru remains a country burdened with a heavy foreign debt and subject to IMF-designed adjustment policies.

It is a country whose resource wealth has led not to prosperity but to depredation and environmental damage.

It is also a country peculiarly prone to natural disasters.

Yet its people are resilient. Through numerous locally based initiatives they seek to forge a better future for themselves and their children.