Mongering in Ayacucho? Don't think so.
[QUOTE=Artisttyp]Has anyone been to this town called "ayacucho" I read that it is supposed to be the jewel of the central andes whatever that translates into. Anyone?[/QUOTE]
I guess you don't hear much about Ayacucho Department outside of Peru.
Having lived in Peru in stretches of 6 or 4 months at a time I take an interest in reading the local rags. Whenever I read about confrontations between LE and narcoguerillas, the police casualties were never less then 4 at a time. As much as I like cheap pussy, that kind of news had deterred from visiting.
I am about as far from being a DEA agent as you can get, yet being a US citizen could raise someone's suspicions. If you don't smell right to some people that's all it may take to get a bullet in your head. I am not a cokehead either, so if you are not a druggie, and not an agent, you fall somewhere in the middle, and there is a Texas saying that there are two things in the middle of a Texas highway: yellow stripes and dead amarillos.
The other news article I read about a year ago has to do with the establishment of somekind of a "narco-state" in Ayacucho. Appearently journalists who investigate these sort of things (and live to write about them) report that some sophisticated operations are moving out of Colombia into Ayacucho along with their US trained chemist Phds. How much of the Peruvian media is to be believed is another question.
I know there are a lot of people drawn to adventures, but I would get some local advice about which part of Ayacucho you can visit.
There is a Peruvian movie--I forget the name, it's one of those 2 sole video CDs that pop up on the streets of Iquitos from time to time: "Coca Mama" I believe is the title. It's about the personal problems of coca growers. It was filmed in Ayacucho. It's actually a sophisticated movie, it's about a man's struggle to find a peaceful solution to the conflict between him and his friend through his faith. It does show the process of coca harvesting and drying, so it's rather novel.
The Andean people have almost a mystical relationship with the coca plant. Indeed there are many uses of it, and it should be legitimately cultivated without being processed into cocaine.
Unfortunately the US policy toward coca growing is a zero tolerance policy, and this is one more example of Yankee misunderstanding and arrogance actually being counterproductive and producing a backlash in these countries.
Typical news out of Ayacucho
Helicopter Crash Kills 3 in Peru
Thursday March 1, 2007 5:31 AM
By HUGO NED
Associated Press Writer
AYACUCHO, Peru (AP) - An air force helicopter crashed in Peru's highlands Wednesday, killing three active-duty or retired military personnel and injuring an army general who commanded a military base in the area.
The helicopter crashed near the village of Anco in the department of Ayacucho, about 240 miles southeast of Lima, the capital, the air force said in a statement.
An army colonel and air force pilot were killed, along with a retired army lieutenant colonel, an army officer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information.
He said that Gen. Walter Chavez - the highest ranking military officer in the Ayacucho region - and three other military officers were injured.