Tribes keep Peru police hostage after Amazon fights

Hundreds of indigenous protesters were holding 38 police hostage early on Saturday in Peru’s Amazon jungle after fights between tribes and police killed up to 33 people in the worst violence of President Alan Garcia’s government.

Demonstrators also were threatening to set fire to an oil pumping station of state-owned Petroperu unless the government told police to halt efforts to clear weeks of blockades of roads and rivers that have hurt food and fuel supplies.
Tribes, worried they will lose control over natural resources, have protested since April to force Congress to repeal new laws that encourage foreign mining and energy companies to invest billions of dollars in the mostly pristine rainforest.

Violence broke out on Friday as police tried to disperse a roadblock on a stretch of highway called “Devil’s Curve” in the Bagua region of Amazonas province, about 870 miles (1,400 km) north of Lima, the capital.

Indigenous leaders said at least 22 protesters were killed. The government reported the deaths of three protesters and 11 police officers, some from spear wounds. At least 100 people were injured and more conflict appeared possible.

Reuters