Peru, a country with a great diversity of languages and cultures and endowed with natural wealth, is today experiencing certain economic improvements in anti-corruption and decentralisation policies not yet reflected in daily life, but it continues to have centuries-old inequalities and poverty, which affects over half of its population. The moment of change and new hopes inspired by the beginning of the new political period, with the 2001 election of Alejandro Toledo as the President of the country and the closing of a dark chapter in the recent history of Peru, marked by corruption and authoritarianism embodied in the fugitive Fujimori, has been left behind. From the initial expectations, there has been a progressive shift to a certain disenchantment in Peruvian society. Different analyses of the political, economic, social and cultural situation are combined in this monograph, together with a review of other topics, like biodiversity, the task of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, the indigenous question, and emigration, to contribute elements that may facilitate the understanding of the reality of a country that, according to reports by the United Nations Development Programme, continues to hold, at the beginning of the 21st century, a promise of better living opportunities.

Rafael Drinot, Sociologist and Peruvian journalist; Ramiro Escobar, Peruvian journalist; Francesc Giró, Director of the Nature Foundation; Gemma Pinyol, Coordinator of the Migrations Programme, CIDOB Foundation; Núria Sala, University of Girona; Augusto Thornberry, Consul-General of Peru in Barcelona; Federico Velarde, Political analyst; César Yáñez, University of Barcelona.

ISSN: 1132-6107

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