The Inca were the Romans of the New World. Incomparable artists and engineers, they built Machu Pichu, constructed the most sophisticated road network in the Americas, and created beautiful artworks and countless treasures out of gold. But their true genius was empire-building. Nova: The Great Inca Rebellion, PBS 2007
When Pizarro arrived in Peru the Inca Empire was already disintegrating. It had been formed only a hundred years previously when the Inca armies had spread out from their capital city of Cusco to overwhelm the many different Indian chiefdoms of the region. By 1532 many of the empire’s some 10,000,000 inhabitants were disenchanted with Inca domination and all too willing to ally themselves with the Spaniards in a bid to break free of it. ibid.
In Peru a third of all the children are stunted and deformed because they don’t get enough to eat. Paul Foot, The Case for Socialism ch4
Two thousand years ago a mysterious and little known people ruled the northern coast of Peru. They built huge pyramids in the desert, comparable in size to the Great Pyramids in Egypt. They were called the Moche. Horizon: The Lost Civilisation of Peru, BBC 2005
They built a culture of extravagant wealth and extreme violence. ibid.
Tonight Horizon tells the story of the rise and fall of one of the greatest civilisations of the ancient world. It’s an epic account of human achievement, natural disasters and human sacrifice. ibid.
They were giant pyramids built as a series of platforms ... Some of the pyramids are richly decorated and may also have been sacred centres. Yet others doubled as burial mounds. These were clearly the centres of a rich and powerful people. ibid.
Archaeologists found evidence that the cities had been abandoned. And this extraordinary civilisation seemed to vanish into the desert. ibid.
Over the last hundred years every time the ice-core showed draught in the mountains it corresponded to a particular type of wet weather on the coast. It’s known as El Niňo. ibid.
The Moche had survived the environmental upheavals, and fifty years later were still building new towns, until they finally disappeared some time after 700 A.D. ibid.
The evidence was unequivocal. At around 650 to 700 A.D. well after the climatic upheaval the Moche had been at war. But who with? ibid.
It was the Moche’s last stand. A leadership that had failed to protect its people lost control ... torn apart by civil war. ibid.
A series of mummified bodies. Such ritual burials, some believe, are part of a cult of the living dead. Ancient X Files s2e2: The Living Dead, National Geographic 2012
The citadel of Kuelap: discovered in 1843 it is one of the most important archaeological finds in the whole of South America. ibid.
The walls are packed with the bones of hundreds of humans. ibid.
They probably didn’t get too many visitors. ibid.
A demonic creature said to resemble a gremlin has reportedly staked its claim deep in the jungles of Peru ... A creature who they call Chullachaqui. Destination Truth s3e6, Skyfy 2009
Often proceeded by a strange whistling sound the Chullachaqui is said to lurk in the thick and sweltering Peruvian jungle. ibid.
Reportedly between three and four feet tall what he lacks in size he makes up for in his sharp-fanged teeth ... Pointy ears, clumps of sporadic fur and a three-toed footprint. ibid.
All over the world hundreds of thousands of people are fighting a hidden war. The outcome of which affects us all. It’s the war against Drugs … A country that’s now replaced Colombia as the world’s number one coke producer. Stacey Dooley Investigates: New Drug Frontiers: Cocaine Capital of the World, BBC 2013
The coca leaves release the chemical Cocaine Hydrochloride which is then skimmed from the surface of the liquid. Then more chemicals are added. ibid.
Hundreds of thousands of poor people with nothing to lose. ibid.
‘Peru doesn’t want to be a country with the title of coca or cocaine producer.’ Peru: The New King of Cocaine, rozzer, Vice TV 2014
One of the more astounding failures of US diplomacy in the last forty years. ibid.
The city is now filled with a series of underground laboratories. ibid.
In Peru a tiny skeleton resists medical explanation … Its cone-shaped head, outsized eye sockets and flattened nose, but is it simply a child born with terrible deformities? … A sacrificed child … Another new sub-species of human? … They can’t identify what species fathers the child. The Unexplained Files s2e2: Peruvian Alien Skull & Baltic Sea UFO, Science 2014
The rights of ownership of the people over the lands they traditionally occupy shall be recognised. The rights of the people to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specifically safeguarded: UN ILO Indigenous and Tribal People Convention 169. When Two Worlds Collide ***** captions, 2016
American entrepreneurs: bring your factories here. Come! ibid. Alan Garcia, president of Peru 2007
I grew up in a collective environment. Where we all enjoy what the earth gives us … Our territories are sacred to us. ibid. Alberto Pizango, president Organization for Native Amazon Peoples
Now you’ll see the damage the crude oil is causing in our region. ibid.
These laws gave private companies the right to exploit rainforest resources. ibid. Victor Belaunde, former congressman
Protests have sprung up in four Amazonian regions. ibid. news
There are dead and wounded people … ibid. reporter
Nine indigenous men are killed. ibid.
What a shame that a democratic government is making Peruvians kill each other. ibid. Pizango
Asylum [for Pizango] was granted in accordance with international laws. ibid. Nicaraguan diplomat
Back in Peru, Alberto Pizango is charged with rebellion, sedition, murder and conspiracy against the State. ibid. caption
Long live the struggle of the Amazonia people! ibid. demonstration in Lima
13 days after the confrontation in Bagua, Congress overturns two of the controversial laws, including Forestry Law 1090. ibid.
But they keep making deals under the table to let the companies in. ibid. Pizango
I’ve decided that I must go back. ibid.
What’s wrong with this world when oil or a piece of gold is worth more than a human life? ibid. father or murdered rozzer
Despite the government’s recent pledge to halt deforestation by 2021, deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon continues to rise. ibid. caption
No government officials were ever charged. ibid.
A pyramid in Peru reveals a hoard of human skeletons: were they brutally murdered in a bloody ancient ritual? In Search of History s1e24: Tombs of Sipan, History 1998
An extraordinary civilisation: nearly two thousand years ago they made a desert fertile, created magnificent art and gloried in rites of death. The Moche were one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world: were they also one of the bloodiest? ibid.
Their civilisation would flourish for nearly 700 years. ibid.
For years no-one knew if the Sacrifice Ceremony was Moche life or Moche myth. ibid.
The massive looting of Moche sites. ibid.
From the Sipan tomb fantastic riches came to light. ibid.
Moche culture practised irrigation and growing techniques. ibid.
Was the Lord of Sipan a warrior priest? ibid.
From skeletons hidden deep underground to a gruesome initiation in the dark tunnels beneath a real-life temple of doom to the site of the world’s most horrifying human sacrifice, I’m answering the dark world of hidden Peru where mysterious tribes performed bizarre and bloody rituals. Hidden Worlds of Don Wildman I: Temples of Doom, Discovery 2020
But the Inca people not only survived here, they managed to build an epic empire across a huge part of South America. ibid.
A real-life temple of doom … first discovered over one hundred years ago. ibid.
Skeletons Found in Peru May Shed Light on Pre-Inca People. ibid. The New York Times
We enter a lawless region that produces roughly one-fifth of the world’s cocaine: Vraem, Peru: Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller s1e2: Cocaine, National Geographic 2020
The Andes Mountains: In this part of my journey, I’ll be up at altitude with the people of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. Simon Reeve’s South America III, BBC 2022
Peru is really a continent in a country. It has some of the highest, driest, wettest, and most inhospitable terrain on the planet. ibid.