I have been quite struck by the commentaries of many Peruvian people on the way in which companies operate in this country. It seems like Peru is one of those places that simply hands out its money to foreign companies instead of investing in its own people so that, in the long run, Peruvian companies can take the place of foreign ones.
Last week I had the pleasure traveling to Machu Picchu. As most of you will know, the common way of getting there is by train. There is basically just one company offering you its services to get there: PeruRail. For a 'modest' price - that equals a plane ticket Lima-Cusco, by the way - they give you delight of delaying your train by a few hours, on top of the two hours it takes to travel some 20km from Piscacucho to Aguas Calientes. FYI, they are charging the same for this ridiculously short ride as they used to do (before the terrible mud slides struck the Sacred Valley) from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, which is about 112km! Despite its name, PeruRail isn't in Peruvian hands - Chilean businessmen are reaping the benefits of overcharging tourists...
Similar examples are legion. Take the airports. Unlike most countries, where you have already paid your airport tax when buying your plane ticket, you have to pay a separate fee to use Peruvian airports (in Lima, for example it's about 7 USD for domestic flights and 35 USD for foreign flights). A wonderful system to get your money without delay, so did the Germans think!
Apparently Peru is exporting quite a bit of its fruits to Chile. Guess who's making huge profits by exporting fruits to "the West"?
Politicians seem not to care about money slipping through Peruvians' hands and ending up in foreigners'; they care about votes. In many countries alike, votes are often bought with construction works. Start building something, and people are happy that they have work. Never mind that you're rebuilding the same road every four to five years, because you wouldn't invest in decent material or people skilled enough to build solid roads or houses or ...
Never mind that mining companies don't have to cough up more taxes (which could then be invested in the communities that suffer from the negative environmental and health consequences, or in education, to skill people for the post-extraction era when the mine closes shop) because you signed a deal safeguarding them from any future increase in taxation or from sharing increases in their own profit margins due to rises in commodity prices.
a wall in Pitón (near Cusco) promising more contruction works (c) Tom Van den Steen
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