Free Republic

Peru’s embattled president achieved the lowest ratings of her career this month, dropping to an abysmal 1.3% approval rating. President Dina Boluarte’s approval ratings have been steadily declining, starting the year with a dismal 4% approval rating and constantly decreasing each month by approximately 0.5%. Women approve of her slightly more than men — recording a 1.5% approval rate as opposed to the 1% of men that approve of her. Boluarte has the worst approval rating among those aged 30-59, with only 0.9% approving of her. The poll, conducted by El Centro de Investigación Territorial Peru, was conducted by interviewers...

Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon.  In 1982, following Operation Peace for Galilee, JINSA reported on the international terrorist haven that had arisen in Fatahland – the southern part of Lebanon controlled by Yasser Arafat.  Aside from the expected mélange of Middle Easterners, there were Japanese Red Army, German and Italian Red Brigades, Nicaraguan Sandinistas, Salvadorans, Colombians and Peruvians.  There were Iranian Shi’ites, East Germans and Bulgarians.  Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon, again.  Religious Iran and secular, Ba’athist Syria made a deal to use Syrian-controlled Lebanon as a base for Hizballah to attack Israel.  Today, Israel...

The switch to agricultural rather than hunter-gatherer-based societies is one of the most pivotal moments in the history of humankind. Archaeologists have long thought that this transition may have been influenced by hardships, as communities began relying more heavily on domesticated crops due to increasing population and diminished wild resources. However, according to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, new evidence from Peru's Altiplano region suggests that this was not the case there. Researchers recently examined the diets of 16 individuals buried at the sites of Kaillachuro and Jiskairumoko between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, during the...

The Kansas City Star reports that Peruvian authorities made a stunning new discovery at the site of Era de Pando in the Supe Valley. The region was home to the Caral culture, which is often considered the oldest city-building civilization in the Americas. Previous excavations at Era de Pando have unearthed four large and four small pyramid complexes, and at least 40 other buildings, including houses and temples, that date back at least 4,000 years. While working near one of the largest pyramids, archaeologists recently uncovered the ruins of a structure known as a "fire altar." The circular feature, which...

An American tourist died after drinking a psychedelic tea that caused a “breakdown” of several organs while he was on a spiritual retreat in the Peruvian Amazon, according to reports. Aaron Wayne Castranova, 41, died Monday after ingesting ayahuasca — a potent hallucinogenic plant brew banned in the US — during a shamanic ritual at La Casa de Guillermo ICONA, a hostel known for its “spiritual tourism” in Loreto. The hypnotic elixir triggered a multi-organ “breakdown” that caused the Alabama man’s lethal spiral, according to Narciso Lopez, the regional prosecutor’s forensic pathologist, the Daily Mail reported. ---------Hostel managers reportedly claimed...

SummarySanctions target ICC judges over Afghanistan, Israel cases ICC condemns sanctions as undermining judicial independence Sanctions complicate financial transactions for targeted judges WASHINGTON/THE HAGUE, June 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal's cases regarding alleged war crimes by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and over the court's issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Washington designated Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler...

La Brújula Verde reports that an international project led by Poland's University of Wroclaw has shed new light on the pre-Inca cultures of southern Peru. The project has focused on sites in the Atico River Valley and the adjacent Pacific coast. At the site of El Curaca, the team uncovered a cemetery of the Chuquibamba (Aruni) culture (ca. a.d. 1000–1450) consisting of collective tombs arranged in circular pits with stone-lined walls. One grave contained the remains of 24 men, women, and children who had been interred with an elaborate collection of funerary offerings, including ceramic, bone, and stone artifacts as...

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office returned eight artifacts to Peru during a ceremony at the Peruvian consulate in New York on May 15. The items returned included funerary items that were taken illegally from tombs in northern Peru during the 1960s and ’70s. The return marks the second time New York officials have repatriated a group of works to Peru. Also among the returned objects is a copper mask believed to represent a fanged Moche deity Ai Apaec, which has historically been associated with protection. The mask, which dates to approximately 300 BCE, is believed to have been taken from...

VATICAN CITY — Two-and-a-half years ago, Pope Francis was trying to fill a big job. For decades, that position — heading the powerful office that helps vet and select bishops — had gone to consummate Vatican insiders. But Francis had staked his papacy on expanding the boundaries of the Catholic Church. And he had his eye on a surprise contender: an American-born missionary operating in the coastal plains of Peru, some 6,000 miles from Rome.“You know that I am very happy in Peru,” the missionary, then-Bishop Robert Prevost, recalled telling Francis. “But if you ask me to take on a...

Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected pope and will be known as Pope Leo XIV. The 69-year-old is the first American to become a pontiff and will lead members of the Catholic Church's global community of 1.4bn people. Born in Chicago, he is seen as a reformer and worked for many years as a missionary in Peru before being made an archbishop there. He also has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges in the local Church. Why do popes choose different names? One of the first acts of...

Why pick the first American Pope now? Robert Prevost was made Pope Leo XIV as a counterweight to President Trump. There’s been little ambiguity about the new pope’s politics and less about the overall agenda. Pope Francis had all but rigged the process to assure another radical successor.

Prevost is a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and has consistently used his X account to promote material hostile to Trump’s immigration policies. In one instance from February 3, Prevost reposted an article by NCROnline titled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” The article criticizes the U.S. vice president for correctly arguing that we owe more immediate responsibility to our own family members and country than to those overseas – a position taught by St. Thomas Aquinas and reiterated in the “social encyclicals” of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century popes....

Peru has ordered the Mexican ambassador to leave within 72 hours after Mexico granted asylum to the family of ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Mr Castillo was removed from office earlier this month after he tried to dissolve Congress.... ...Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called the removal of Mr Castillo undemocratic. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday the government was negotiating safe passage for the family of Mr Castillo, who were inside Mexico's embassy in the Peruvian capital Lima.... ...Peru's foreign ministry said in its social media accounts that it was expelling Mr Monroy because "of...

The site, near the Pacific coastal city of Chiclayo, probably dates to the Wari culture which ruled the Andes of modern Peru between the 7th and 12th Century. The once buried city showed evidence of human sacrifice

Robert Prevost has been named as the new Pope and will become Francis' successor following two days of voting inside the Sistine Chapel. The pontiff, who will be named Pope Leo XIV, is the 267th Holy Father - becoming the religious leader of Catholics across the globe. The 69-year-old is also history's first American pope. His name was announced after cardinal Mamberti uttered the words 'Habemus papam!' Latin for 'We have a pope!' from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. Chants of 'Leon, Leon' ran through the crowds who had gathered in St Peter's Square, with some appearing to be...

Could Cardinal Prevost be the first American pope?Seemingly out of nowhere, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is being discussed as a serious candidate in the upcoming conclave.Why this piece is important: Prevost is being seriously considered as a papal candidate—but questions surround his silence and his actions as Prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops. The big picture: Prevost has cooperated in advancing Francis’ agenda, facilitated the appointment of heterodox bishops throughout the world, and tacitly denied the traditional teaching on the episcopate. Flashpoint: He oversaw the deposition of the most conservative U.S. bishop (Strickland) and the appointment of a notorious liberal...

Former President Obama congratulated Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native, on his selection as the next pontiff for the Roman Catholic Church. “Michelle and I send our congratulations to a fellow Chicagoan, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,’ Obama wrote in a Thursday post on X. “This is a historic day for the United States, and we will pray for him as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church and setting an example for so many, regardless of faith,” he added. Leo, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Peru. He is...

An American Pope Leo 14th

OMG Our taxpayer dollars went to alpaca farming in Peru and improving the marketability of peas in Guatemala. But it gets worse… Most of the money marked for those grants NEVER even made it out of DC. ... It’s all a money laundering scheme and unless arrests are made this is all pointless ... Democrats giving Democrats taxpayer money so they then kickback some in the form of campaign contributions.

A newly discovered fossil of a four-legged whale in Peru sheds new light on the evolution of whales and their journey across the oceans. ***************************************************************** A fascinating new discovery has been made off the coast of Peru, where paleontologists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown four-legged whale species. This remarkable find, which was made about 42.6 million years ago during the middle Eocene, is shedding new light on the evolutionary transition of whales from land-dwelling mammals to the aquatic giants we recognize today. As reported in Current Biology, the whale species, named Peregocetus pacificus, was found in the...