Home > Pueblos jóvenes
Literally meaning "young towns", pueblos jóvenes is the nickname given to the shanty towns that line the hilltops of Lima, capital city of the Republic of Peru. They are populated almost exclusively by Indian and mestizo campesinos who have migrated from Peru's countryside.The towns are composed of poorly-constructed shacks which generally lack running water, electricity, and other basic services. In both appearance and culture, they are similar to the favelas of Brazil and other Latin American cities. Crime is rampant, and the Lima police make random and sporadic arrests to discourage the antisocial behavior from seeping into the city below.
Many of the dwellings are painted with the colors of APRA, the Partido Socialista del Perú , or the resident's political candidate of choice. Some still bear the logo of disgraced three-term president Alberto Fujimori, now living in exile in Japan, sometimes because the resident hasn't had the time or money to repaint his dwelling, sometimes because he is still a fujimorista.
President Alejandro Toledo, Fujimori's successor, pushed through various initiatives to enable peasants to return to the farming and mining communities devastated by the rural exodus to the city; hundreds of thousands of people are still living in cramped quarters above the fifth-largest city in the Americas, which means that the initiatives are ineffective.
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