Peru mine protesters seize police

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/7458517.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Thousands of demonstrators have overpowered riot police sent to break up a week-long blockade in a mining region in southern Peru.

People in the town of Moquegua have been blocking roads to demand a greater share of taxes paid by the country's biggest copper producer for their area.

Police fired tear gas at the crowd, put at 20,000, who beat them back and took some 65 officers hostage.

High gold, copper and zinc prices are fuelling Peru's booming economy.

Clashes erupted in Moquegua, some 1,200km (750 miles) south of the capital, Lima, leaving dozens injured.

Police on the ground and flying overhead in a helicopter fired tear gas as the demonstrators threw rocks.

Some 65 police officers were overpowered and taken hostage, said Veronica Paredes of the Peruvian ombudsman's office, which is trying to negotiate an end to the violence.

"The situation in Moquegua is no longer under police control. I have wounded here and I am in trouble, so I urge police to draw back," a police chief, Alberto Jordan told the RPP radio station at the height of the violence.

He was among the police officers seized and being held in a church, Peruvian media reported.

The protesters say they want a bigger share of the taxes the Southern Copper mining company pays the government to go to their region.

They argue that Peru's economic boom, largely the result of high mineral and commodity prices, is not benefiting them.

Pressure

The regional authorities had asked for riot police to be sent from Lima to break up the blockades that have cut access to Peru's southernmost Tacna region, causing food and fuel shortages. The main road into Chile has also been blocked. The government has been forced to ship in supplies by sea.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia is coming under pressure to deliver the benefits of the economic boom to the country's poor, says the BBC's Dan Collyns in Lima.

Elected two years ago for the second time, Mr Garcia has seen his popularity fall significantly in recent months and the longer he delays action the lower his approval sinks, our correspondent says.

Mr Garcia was Peru's president between 1985 and 1990, a period marked by rampant inflation, widespread poverty and a guerrilla insurgency.