Ilo

Ilo is a port city in southern Peru, the capital of Ilo Province and the second largest city in the Moquegua Region, with 69,376 inhabitants according to the article. Before the Spanish arrived the area was home to the Chiribaya culture, and the conquistadores introduced olives, which remained the main source of work until the early twentieth century. A small settlement called Pacocha stood by the shore where the Osmore River meets the Pacific, and after high tides flooded it in the late nineteenth century the population moved to the present site and took the name Ilo. Fishing and mining are the main economic activities, with copper mines originally owned by the Southern Peru Copper Corporation, and the copper smelter has caused air and water pollution. In 1992 Peru granted a 99-year lease to landlocked Bolivia to develop a port facility there. A railroad linked the port to Moquegua.