Peru's Toledo to meet Bush in US visit

Peru's Toledo to meet Bush in US visit
07-11-2006, 04h54
WASHINGTON (AFP)


Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, pictured, is scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush at the White House. Toledo was in Washington to lobby for Senate ratification of a bilateral free-trade pact before his term ends 28 July and he is replaced by Alan Garcia
(AFP/File)

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo is scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush at the White House on Tuesday, Peru's embassy said.

Toledo was in Washington to lobby for Senate ratification of a bilateral free-trade pact before his term ends on July 28
and he is replaced by Alan Garcia.
(snip/...)

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133040

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out with the old:



~snip~
Access to education -- first as an undergraduate on a partial soccer scholarship at the University of San Francisco and then at Stanford, where he earned three advanced degrees -- transformed his life, he said. "I am free because of education," said Toledo, the first indigenous Andean to be elected Peru's president. "Poverty robs the freedom of people and steals human dignity."
(snip)

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/june18/toledo-618.html

In with the new (and old):



Past and future President Alan Garcia

Embargo Date: 11 July 2006 05:00 GMT


Peru: Poorest women and children are let down by discriminatory health services
(Lima) In a new report published today, Amnesty International revealed that in Peru, discriminatory maternity and infant health services are letting hundreds of impoverished women and children die every year and denying many of them the right to an identity.

“Effective maternity and infant health care in Peru seems to be a privilege of the rich. Impoverished women who are at grater risk of health problems during pregnancy and birth, and marginalized children who face higher risks of illnesses during the first years of life are the ones who receive the least protection,” said Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International’s Americas Deputy Director.

Amnesty International’s report also revealed that despite the development of a governmental free health service for marginalized communities, effective health care is not reaching impoverished women and children.

“Lack of proper investment and unequal distribution of health resources across Peru is resulting in the deaths of hundreds of women and children every year, deaths that could have been easily prevented,” said Guadalupe Marengo.

According to official statistics, during 2000 alone, 71 out of every 1,000 babies died at birth in Huancavelica, one of Peru’s poorest department -- almost five times more than in Lima, Peru's richest city, where 17 out of every 1,000 babies died on the same year.

The World Health Organization estimated that 410 out of every 100,000 women died during labour in Peru in 2004. This figure is surpassed only by Haiti, Guatemala and Bolivia -- the three poorest countries in the Americas.

Amnesty International’s report, published in the context of the III National Health Conference, also points out the discrimination suffered by the few who access health services.

“If you go badly dressed they make you wait longer and the ones who arrive later but better dressed go first … if you complain, they treat you worse,” said a woman from the town of Iquitos, Amazon region.
(snip/...)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR460172006

AI Index: AMR 46/018/2006 11 July 2006

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Media Briefing

AI Index: AMR 46/018/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 166
11 July 2006

Embargo Date: 11 July 2006 05:00 GMT

Peru: Poor and excluded women – denial of
maternal and infant health
Facts and Figures
Internal armed conflict

• The internal armed conflict in Peru (1980 - 2000) confronted the Peruvian State and the armed opposition groups Shining Path and the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA).
  
  
• ,969 people were killed or “disappeared” during the conflict – 79% came from rural areas and 56% were peasants (Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2003).
  
  
• 85% of victims of human rights violations during the conflict were poor (Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2003).

Access to health today

Around 25% of all Peruvians (around 6,500,000 people) do not have access to primary health attention (National Health Survey, 2000).

• Most of the health budget is spent on richer areas – in 2005 around US$51 per capita was given to areas with richer populations and US$24 per capita to areas with high levels of poverty (CIES, 2005).
  
  
• Lima, the richest city in the country, has 22 doctors, 11 nurses and 3 obstetricians for every 10,000 people.
  
  
• Huancavelica, one of the poorest cities of the country, has 4 doctors, 3 nurses and 2 obstetricians for every 10,000 people (INEI, 2003).
  
  
• 50% of Peru’s population doesn’t have access to medicines – 60% in rural areas (Pan-American Health Organization, 2002).
  
  
• % of the Peruvian population lives in poverty – 70% in rural areas (UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Health, 2004).
  
  
• 25% of the Peruvian population (around 6.8 million) lacks drinkable water – 40% in rural areas (National Ombudsman, 2005).

(snip/...)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR460182006