Our Man in Lima

Brazilian police chief assassinated during interview…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:21:43 +0000

In the midst of a call-in interview with morning radio where he was discussing the importance of combating drug violence, Clayton Leão Chavez was ambushed by gunmen and shot to death. Chavez was the chief of police in Camacari, a small city near Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The attack took place on the busy Cascalheira Highway, where Chavez had pulled over to conduct the interview via cellphone. His wife was in the car with him, and witnessed the attack.

The assailants fled in a white volkswagon, as the tape rolled on the interview and Chavez’s wife wept and cried for help. The radio presenters encouraged listeners to get in touch with police and send help. When emergency crews arrived, Chavez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lori Berenson paroled…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:18:50 +0000

Arrested 15 years ago for terrorist acts against the Peruvian government, Lori Berenson has had a lonely and controversial term in prison. After her conviction was overturned in 2000, she was retried by a civil court and convicted of the lesser charges of giving aid to terrorists. This brought a reduced sentence of twenty years, and giving her the possibility of parole, which she yesterday won. She will be released in Lima under the condition that she remain in Peru for the rest of her proscribed sentence, and that she not consort with anyone with ties to revolutionary groups.

She will be an uneasy resident of a city still stinging from the memory of the turbulent decade of guerillas and Fujimori. Most of Lima sees her as an audacious and unrepentant terrorist, or at the very least, a co-conspirator of the MRTA, the group that seized the Japanese Embassy and held seventy hostages for more than 120 days before the compound was stormed. She was accused of having been part of a similar plot aimed at the Peruvian congress, and despite her continued assertion of innocence, it is difficult to believe she knew nothing of her associates’ actions.

But anyone can see that the 40-year-old woman emerging from Lima’s Santa Monica prison is a far cry from the passionate twenty-something activist who held up her fist and defiantly screamed “There are no criminals in the MRTA!” as the police paraded her before the press. She was sentence to life in 1996, and though her sentence was later reduced, in the end, that is what prison has taken from her.

In her fifteen years bouncing between high security prisons around Peru, she was married to a fellow inmate, and the two, now separated, conceived a child. Their son was delivered last year in a prison hospital in Lima, and due to an eccentric Peruvian law, Berenson was allowed to rear the child inside the prison. He was named Salvador, and for the redemption he brought her, it cannot be doubted that he was aptly named.

Cruise ship sinks in Amazon…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:46:05 +0000

Last night, an overloaded and outdated cruise ship traveling between Iquitos, Peru and Brazil sank into the Amazon river. The total number of passengers has been reported between 250 and 400, but it seems there are 12 identified dead and up to 70 still missing. Link to story in Espanol here…

Cache of artifacts, mummy recovered in Cuzco…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:16:51 +0000

Two men have been arrested in Cuzco with a cache of artifacts from all over Peru, one of which was the mummy of a four year old child.

Organ theft in science exhibit…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:15:01 +0000

Apparently, it´s not only living organs that are valuable enough to steal. The Bodies exhibit currently in Lima is now missing a lung, but at least they didn´t wake up in a bathtub full of ice with bad stitches…

Potato plastic…

ourmaninperu — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:12:12 +0000

Peruvian scientists are working on developing a new kind of plastic made from potato starch.

La Lucha

ourmaninperu — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:05:00 +0000

Not much more than a hole in the wall in the Chess Alley off of Park Kennedy, La Lucha’s simple operation belies the knee-trembling quality of its product. The menu of four or five criollo sandwich options makes for the best lunch/late night meal anywhere in Miraflores.

Try them:

Chicharron

Lechon

Hanzo

ourmaninperu — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:01:21 +0000

One of the leading sushi restaurants in Peru, Hanzo holds its own in a very competitive, very trendy crowd. The secret of its success is the chef’s creative and experimental menu, which capitalizes on Peru’s rich abundance of sea food and its radically non-Japanese flavor traditions.

Try them:

Acevichado

Tiradito

Danica

ourmaninperu — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:48:31 +0000

Danica is a restaurant for natives: in the heart of San Isidro, off Ovalo Gutierrez, it has a simple exterior and an elegant interior. The menu is ample and innovative, and the quality reliable. It seems with every step through Miraflores or San Isidro, you run into a new fusion restaurant- Danica is certainly not the first fusion Peruvian/Italian menu. But they can be forgiven for treading trodden trails if they do it well.

Try them:

Risotto a lo “Lomo Saltado”

Gnocchi al Aji Amarillo

La 73

ourmaninperu — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:31:11 +0000

It is quite difficult for a restaurant to pull off the everyday appeal of a neighborhood hangout and the refined precision of a fine kitchen. La 73 manages to walk that line. With a small, busy patio and a spare but cozy interior, the standby on the fringe of Lima’s Barranco district rarely fails to please. It’s menu is solid and consistent, with an eccentric collection of dishes combining traditional plates and international influences. The name is familiar to Limenos: it comes from the old bus line that used to cross Barranco.

Try them:

Manjar and Nutella Crepes

Choclo con Queso