Letter from Cusco: On Tuesday morning last in Cusco, the ancient Incan capital of Peru, a large group of locals huddled around the news stand on Avenida Sol.
Apart from one old man in a grey anorak, who was anxious for reassurance that the free page three girl poster had been inserted in his daily paper, everybody's attention was directed at the latest indignant headlines about their ever more disgraced president, Alejandro Toledo.
"Toledo to be interrogated by Commission of Justice", said Peru 21. "Toledo faces expulsion in the wake of video scandal", revealed La Republica. "There are seven more videos of Toledo", teased the Expreso.
Last week it was shock troops disguised as cleaners in the Palace of Government. This week, the president of Peru faces a far graver threat to his administration, now into its third year of five.
Alcides Chamorro, the president of the Commission of Justice, says he is just waiting on a handwriting expert's report to decide if Toledo was involved in the forgery of thousands of signatures, including that of the National Electoral Alliance leader, Lourdes Flores Nano.
The formidable Nano, who has confirmed that the elegant signature attributed to her hand is nothing like her hurried scrawl, has called Peru Posible "a party of etiquette and facade". Her forgery was one of thousands used in 1998 to ensure that Toledo's political party Pais Posible, now called Peru Posible, could be registered before the National Jury of Elections. If it can be conclusively proved that Toledo knew about the forgeries, he will be asked by Chamorro to step down as president.
"Tolevideo", as the latest scandal has been dubbed, was unveiled by crusading journalist Carlos Espá on the investigative television programme Cuarto Poder last Sunday night.
Espá has the reporting style of Michael Moore and the looks of a Hollywood hit man - all gelled hair and dark shades. He poses for photographs with his arms folded and his mouth turned downwards.
In his hour-long documentary, he insisted that only about 30 per cent of the signatures presented to the National Jury of Elections on behalf of the Pais Posible party were genuine. He showed video footage of Toledo celebrating his party's successful registration and his grave voiceover asked: "Isn't it strange that a man, whose party had lodged 660,000 signatures of supporters, should celebrate with just eight people in a restaurant? Where were all of the people who went out into the street collecting signatures?"
He went on to compare many signatures attributed to different people which were remarkably similar in slant and flourish.
Toledo's administration has responded by saying it is "evaluating the possibility of denouncing Espá before the Council of Peruvian Press and of taking legal action against him".
The National Association of Journalists in Peru has been quick to defend the maverick reporter. "The exercise of the freedom of the press cannot be carried out according to the interests of the government," they have insisted.
On the streets of Cusco the locals have more pressing concerns about the Toledo administration than the abstract idea of forged signatures.
The corruption of football - that's what they are angry about this week. On Tuesday, scores of protesters took to the streets carrying a huge red banner of the local team, Cienciano.
"The corruption of football leagues in Peru is affecting local teams like ours," said a photographer for local paper El Sol, his clapped-out Olympus hanging around his neck. "Some people don't care what goes on in the country, in political terms, until it involves football." Apart from the national sport, the plight of the underpaid and overworked coca farmers in the region has ignited a strike that is now into its third week.
When petitioning and pleading failed to get the attention of the Government, last week 200 students and coca farmers stormed Koricancha, the Temple of the Sun, in Cusco city centre.
They barricaded the doors with chairs and tables, making prisoners of 17 tourists who had been admiring the Incan architecture and Dominican art.
Sixty members of the special services surrounded the building within an hour and lobbed tear gas in to break up the demonstration.
It was certainly a clever way to get noticed: tourism increased by almost 25 per cent in Peru last year, the largest growth in all of South America. Cusco is the most popular tourist destination of all, being the start-off point for the Machu Picchu trek.
So, 10 out of 10 for location, though perhaps the Coca farmers could have found a better time to look for the attention of their beleaguered president.