1 Killed, 28 hurt in Peru protests

Lima, Agency
One person was killed and 28 others injured when police clashed with residents of the southern Peruvian town of Espinar amid protests against a planned irrigation project, the head of the Cuzco regional ombud's office told Thursday.

"The fatality was reported around 11:00 p.m.," Silvio Campaña said. "His name is Leoncio Fernandez Pacheco, 47, and he is a security guard at San Antonio Abad University in Espinar."

Fernandez died of a blow to the head, Campaña said, adding that 10 police were among the injured.

Two of the wounded civilians were struck by either bullets or pellets and were being transferred to better-equipped hospitals in the neighboring region of Arequipa, the official said.

The clash "was an aggression on the part of the National Police, with rockets, bombs and pellets," Espinar Mayor Eloy Chancayauri said on Canal N television.

One of the wounded protesters, who appeared on television with a bloody bandage across his face, said police broke up "a peaceful meeting to evaluate if a commission would go to Lima to talk directly with the government."

Farmers in the Espinar area oppose an irrigation project they say could leave them without enough water for their own crops.

The contract for the $200 million Majes-Sihuas II project was awarded earlier this week to Consorcio Angostura-Siguas, comprising Spain's Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios and the Peruvian firm Cosapi.

The aim of the project is to irrigate more than 38,500 hectares (95,000 acres) of land in Arequipa.

Campaña, who said he had been warning officials in Lima for months that anger over Majes-Sihuas II could lead to social conflict, noted the Cuzco regional administration secured judicial injunctions mandating evaluations of the project's potential impact on the environment and on agriculture in Espinar.

"Regrettably, the central government made the decision Monday to move up the date, to avoid being notified about the court orders that confirmed these measures," Campaña said, "which has irritated the population and has caused this conflict of large dimensions."

The violence in Espinar had repercussions Thursday in the Peruvian Congress, where lawmakers, including one from the governing APRA party, demanded that the interior minister and National Police director face questions in the legislature.

Congressional speaker Cesar Zumaeta said new Interior Minister Fernando Barrios, who took office Thursday, told him he would invite Cuzco regional president Hugo Gonzales for talks and send a high-level delegation to Espinar.