NEWS ANALYSIS/OMNIS TERRA - Francis in Peru, a polarized country and in need of reconciliation

Thursday, 18 January 2018 pope francis   politics   civil society  

Pope Francis' visit to Inca land comes at a critical and therefore providential moment. On the one hand there is the harsh reality of the victims of the north coast of Peru due to the devastation caused by the typhoon El Niño at the beginning of 2017, which the Pope will visit when he arrives in Trujillo. Several sectors of politics and society itself point out the slow process on behalf of the State in implementing a reconstruction plan to help the 10,508 people living in over 2,000 tents spread across 34 camps, according to information from the National Institute of Civil Protection.
On the papal agenda there is also a stop in Puerto Maldonado, capital of the Madre de Dios region which, despite being one of the richest regions of raw materials, is nevertheless one of the most troubled by drug trafficking and illegal mining. The weakest and most vulnerable are the victims of this iniquitous system: people tricked to work in gold mines, or girls believe they will have the opportunity to study or work in a home but end up in the network of prostitution ( ...)
Faced with the crisis and political instability that led to the so-called "wave of Odebrecht" (from the name of the scandal) and the strong polarization, accentuated by the pardon granted to former president Alberto Fujimori, the social mobilizations promoted by the various political sectors are more and more frequent. In the midst of this panorama of instability, Peru is preparing to receive the Pontiff. And, as Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani assured us, Pope Francis "comes to unite us, because we must be honest: we have a somewhat fragmented social fabric, with gaps, patched up". (....)


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