Normally, the coast of Peru is washed by the Humboldt current, which carries cool waters from Antarctica almost as far north as the equator.

ECONOMIST: The unkind child

That cold current is the reason why Peru's coastal plain is a desert (whose soil can be made fertile when irrigated by the waters of rivers rushing down from the Andes).

ECONOMIST: The unkind child

The silver lining in these storm clouds is modest: the rainfall replenishes the underground aquifers on which some farmers rely, and the warmer current brings shrimp and lobsters to Peru's coast and provides ideal growing conditions for scallops.

ECONOMIST: The unkind child

Every single legal expert that is not paid by Peru's government has stated clearly that the current constitution does not allow a second re-election of the head of state.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Unless current trends are reversed, the western hemisphere's ongoing struggle to establish strong, viable democracies could well lose one of its greatest current success stories, Colombia and possibly Peru.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: America's blunder, Chavez's success

Currently, the candidates are Ollanta Humala, former President Alejandro Toledo, current Lima mayor Luis Cataneda and Keiko Fujimori, daughter of President Alberto Fujimori who governed Peru from 1990 to 2001.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A political tremor brewing in Peru