على الأقلّ 30 يفاد يقتل بما أنّ هنديات يحتجّون زيت وغاز استكشاف في بيرو

احتجّت زعيمات يقال شرطة يفتح نار من هليكوبترات مع رصاصات وغاز مسيل للدّموع, بينما وطنيّة شرطة مديرة [جوس] [سنشز] [فرفن] قال هنديات يهاجم ضابطات مع سلاح ناريّ. He said they also set fire to government buildings.

Eight police officers were killed by gunfire and five wounded, said Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas.

Indian leader Alberto Pizango said 22 Indians were killed in the clash and he accused the government of “genocide” in attacking what he called a peaceful protest. Another 50 Indians were injured, 14 of them seriously, said Servando Puerta, president of a second indigenous umbrella group for the region.

Indians have been blocking roads, waterways, and a state oil pipeline intermittently since April, demanding Peru’s government repeal laws they say make it easier for foreign companies to exploit their lands.

The laws, backed by President Alan Garcia as he implemented the Peru-US free trade pact, open communal jungle lands and water resources to oil drilling, logging, mining, and large-scale farming, Indians say.

Garcia, who wants to ramp up foreign oil investment in the Amazon, accused Pizango of “falling to a criminal level.”

Pizango denied that protesters killed police.