Things You Shouuld Know About Living In Peru

Things You Should Know
About Living in Peru


1) First of all the laws are not made to punish people, they are made to bribe people so the government doesn’t have to pay them. A Sergeant on the police force makes $300-dollars a month paycheck with 13-years service in Lima, Peru, and $900-dollars a month in bribes; matter of fact, the government wants to boost the bribes up because the police started complaining of the low fines didn’t match their cost of living.

2) There are no real construction laws—especially in the rural areas, this can be seen during earthquakes, and so forth—when I say ‘so forth’ I mean, just go into any neighborhood in Lima and look at the construction going on, ask if they got a permit, and they’ll tell you it’s none of you business, because they don’t. Matter of fact, they may boast of the money they had to pay to get the municipality to agree to bend the law for them to build a fifth floor on a building that should only be four. Again the under-bellow of the government, is not constructed well enough to enforce it, at best they will look at your complaint to pacify you, and even send someone out to investigate, and fine the person—if they have not been bribed already, but whatever damage is done it is done, and the fine put on the tax payer is on the house taxes, or paid up front as a bribe—the best job in town is being a mayor, or working for one in the municipality. So where you live in Lima can be dangerous unless you know what you’re looking at; and outside of Lime it just gets worse.

3) Will the police protect you? NO!! Just look around you will see every house, every building with private guards or privately paid neighborhood patrolmen, and the structures are all covered with cast iron, jail like bars—why? Because the police are a picture, a façade, an illusion (they are lazy, underpaid, and are part of the crime syndicate; in most cases if you’re houses are robbed, the police are in on it. Just go and report it and see what is done about it. If it’s under $1000-dollars they’ll tell you to nearly get lost, or to sign this and that, and that will be the last of it. If it is more than a thousand, it will most likely be the same. They will not show you mug-shots, I doubt they have them. Plus, the robbers if caught will be let out the next day (if not sooner, they do jail people for show and tell, for the media), again bribery, just like the Mayors, and the Judges, in most cases if you can get to the judges or the mail clerk without anyone seeing you, you can buy your way out of anything, or have the mail clerk look the other way, and get anything. If you are bringing in anything worth while they will find a tax, one you will not want to pay, and they will sell the object. If you tell them to send it back because you do not want it, it will never reach its destination. Peru is not known to be the number one thief in South America for nothing.

4) If you want your neighbor to turn his music down at 2:00 a.m., and he refuses to, the police will come out at 4:00 a.m., and knock on their door—maybe? This is really questionable, they are afraid of retaliation. And ask them if you insist, but once gone the music man or woman will turn it back up, and they know the police will not come a second time, and if they do, big deal, they just turn it down and back up. Nothing else will take place, plus it will be morning and lawful to have the music on.

5) Democracy in Peru is a farce, everyone knows it, but some people actually believe they have it: it is rights without responsibility; it is also an international screen to look good. If you try to see a prominent person in jail, you will have to be with ten-other people, no cameras no anything, and that is because they want to control his mouth. Most presidents rob the country blind, Garcia, Fujimori, and Toledo (and are wife), all publicly known have done so, Fujimori is the only one brought to trial thus far on human right charges, not for robbing the country blind.

6) If you own property in Peru, and you do not live on it, invaders will invade it, and own it within a certain amount of time, the municipality will even tell you to fence it up, and live on it, because they will not protect your rights, actually they’ll sell them to the next highest bidder and you will not know about it. Also if you have a maid, and she lives over three years in your house, she can ask for ownership of a portion of it—like the invaders. If you buy property, make sure it is clear, they sell the same one over and over and over, and the only one that gets it is usually the first one, the others happened to fall into the well soon after the first sale was completed, but somehow the paperwork at the municipality took so long to document, the original owner had enough time to resell it a half dozen times.

7) Lying in Peru is like drinking Coke in America, they can do it with a straight face better than any other country I’ve been in, and I’ve been in sixty. Nine out of ten times, what they say is because of what they want, not what they’re going to do. They have no respect for the neighbor; they will try to use the simplest means to get a job done, even at your expense.

8) Peruvians will think throwing stones and blocking traffic will get the job done, although it only slows the traffic down, hurts people, and nobody is responsible. The police, if they shoot the robber, or stone thrower, will lose his job, so they’ll most likely not get involved. If you get in a bus accident, and you’re on the bus, and hurt, you better have good insurance, they don’t, and they will perhaps pay up to 500 soles that is $150. Dollars on hospital bills and you have to fight for that.

9) In most town-ships, they are not looking to elect the honest mayor, or public official, they are looking for the one who will give them something free, look the other way when need be, keep a job they want to do little on. They will tell everyone how poor they are, and the next day build a second floor to their house.