Andean Group - February 2009 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Peru's President Alan Garcí­a exchanged sharp words with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales in mid-February over the Venezuelan-inspired Casas del Alba, which Peru's congress is investigating for allegedly receiving external financing to spread Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez 's 'Bolivarian' ideology.

Morales objected to Peru sending a delegation of legislators to Bolivia as part of the investigation this month. He accused Peru of unwarranted interference in Bolivia's domestic affairs. He then repeated a theory he has for some time propounded - that there are US military bases in Peru. The US embassy in Lima emphatically denied Morales' allegation as did Garcí­a, who called on his Bolivian peer to send a congressional delegation to Peru in order to investigate for itself.

Morales had some justification in feeling aggrieved, according to one member of Peru's delegation, Edgar Reymundo, of the centre-left Unión por el Perú (UPP). Reymundo said that the delegation, which was presided over by Walter Menchola, of the conservative Unidad Nacional, had spoken to prominent opposition leaders, such as Jorge Quiroga, the leader of the opposition coalition Podemos but not to similarly senior members of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). Menchola accused Morales of erecting a smokescreen to hide acts of corruption.

Puno name change
Intriguingly, shortly before the congressional delegation left for Bolivia, the regional government of Puno began debating whether to rename the region to reflect the identity of the majority of its inhabitants. Possibly inspired by the success of President Morales in pushing through a new constitution enshrining indigenous rights in law for the first time, the regional council of Puno established a multiparty commission to debate renaming Puno, the Región Federal Autónoma de Quechuas y Aymaras.

The first Casas del Alba office to be built in Peru was located in Puno, which is the source of some of the friction between the central government and the regional government there. The regional president of Puno, Hernán Fuentes, has on several occasions sought to take advantage of the fact that President Garcí­a is deeply unpopular in southern Peru, particularly Puno. In March 2008, Fuentes called for “real administrative and political autonomy" for Puno and the right to insurrection when “a usurping government fails to comply with the constitution".

Back then, the government accused Fuentes of “sedition". It also cited Fuentes' approval of an ordinance legalising coca cultivation in August 2007, the legality of which the government was forced to challenge. It used his comments to bolster its claim that foreign powers were seeking to destabilise Peru by supporting regional protests. It was at this point that Peru's congress began investigating the Casas del Alba. Congress has yet to produce any damning evidence.

The proposal to change the name of Puno is unlikely to come to anything. The adviser of the regional council of Puno, Wenceslao Apaza Ñaupa, told the local press that the proposal was deliberately provocative to attract media attention. He said it was unimportant in itself but would help to raise awareness of the real issue at stake: the need for a constitutional amendment to increase regional autonomy.

• La Teta Asustada

The Peruvian film, La Teta Asustada (The Milk of Sorrow), won the coveted Golden Bear award for best film at the Berlin Film Festival this month. The film was directed by Claudia Llosa, the niece of the famous author Mario Vargas Llosa. It is a drama about a young woman, Fausta, a child of rape who suffers from a disease she believes is transmitted through the breast milk of women who were raped during the civil war between government forces and Sendero Luminoso guerrillas. The lead actress Magaly Solier sang a song from the movie in Quechua at the award ceremony.