Lima, 13 Feb. Peru’s Culture authorities are “working” to reopen from this Wednesday access to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, which remain closed due to the social and political crisis that has affected the Andean country since last December, reported Monday from official sources.
“We are working with regional and local authorities, through technical meetings and also with the President of the Republic, Dina Boluarte, who has asked us to unite the efforts of various sectors to reopen Machu Picchu,” the minister said. of Culture, Leslie Urteaga. . .
The minister considered that the negative image from which her country suffers by not allowing access to one of the seven wonders of the modern world, located in the jungle of the southern region of Cuzco, is “really worrying”.
“We hope that the mayors of neighboring provinces will provide us with guarantees for all visitors. If we have this security, the 15th would be the day of reopening,” he said.
Urteaga remarked that Machu Picchu “will always be the jewel of Peru and of the world” and said that now there is “the possibility of dialogue with all the actors, of reopening and of visiting the llaqta (citadel) in peace , without violence or threats.
He also reports that with the closure of access to the ruins, the Cusco region lost 5 to 6 million soles (between 1.3 and 1.5 million dollars).
He announced that the Peruvian authorities “are also working on a plan to restore the country’s image abroad, which should be presented in the coming months”.
This initiative will aim to “say that Peru is a peaceful and safe country and that we are ready to receive visitors from all countries”, he said.
The minister stressed, on the other hand, that work is underway “on the technical part” to recover the archaeological area of Kuelap, in the northern region of Amazonas, which at the beginning of last year was affected by a landslide caused by geological faults.
“For this reason, we tried to have a multidisciplinary technical team, not only archaeologists, but also engineers, geologists, hydrologists, because we have a geological fault there,” he said.
In this regard, he pointed out that the archaeologist José Bastante has agreed to leave his position as head of the functional area of the National Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu to lead the Kuelap Archaeological Research Program (PRIA) “with the support of international entities”.
Urteaga concluded that his office sees “working from heritage education as an important step in forging better citizens and strengthening pride in who we are, our identity and our cultural diversity.” ECE
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