More than 50 people were injured yesterday in the southern highland city of Ayacucho amid protests over the deaths of two farmers killed by police during a farmers strike on Tuesday. Ayacucho’s mayor, Germán Martinelli, told Agencia Andina officers fired tear gas at protesters after they hurled stones at the city’s police station and set fire to local stores.
According to daily El Comercio, some 8,000 people participated in the demonstration, demanding an investigation into the deaths of the farmers who were from the village of Quinua, located outside Ayacucho. The two farmers were shot to death during the second day of the national agro strike by police who were trying to prevent protesters from torching a gas station.
“The situation is delicate,” said Martinelli. “There are demonstrators at different points of the city. There is no business or transportation. The scene is violent and tense.”
“The death of the farmers mortified a lot of the population and upset the peace, even though we are doing everything we can to calm them down,” Cronica Viva news agency reported Martinelli saying. Local media has reported between 50 and 100 people were injured.
Farmers began a national strike on Monday demanding, among other things, the restructuring of the agriculture sector, compensation for farmers ahead of the implementation of the free trade agreement with the United States, and decreasing the price of fertilizers. Other demands include the rejection of water privatization and Law 840, known as the Law of the Jungle, which encourages private investment in deforested areas of Peru’s Amazon. At least four people were killed in the protests.
