When I lived in Lima it was starkly apparent. For example, there's no resistance to teaching evolution in schools down there. Here, in the US, the biology teacher where I was student teaching refused to do a unit on evolution. My wife is Peruvian, and she often snorts at how ridiculous the attitudes are here. Honestly, I take her word for it. We're so indoctrinated to a crazy version of religion that even intellectually curious people can't recognize how absurd it is.