Month-long protest over Peru copper mine claims first life
Month-long protest over Peru copper mine claims first life
By FRANKLIN BRICENO, Associated Press | April 23, 2015 | Updated: April 23, 2015 6:41pm
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Mourners carried a coffin holding a 61-year-old farmer through the streets of a southern Peru port city Thursday after the man became the first fatality of a monthlong protest against a Mexican-owned copper mining project.
Agriculture Minister Juan Manuel Benites, the chief government negotiator in the dispute, said the widening protest against the Tia Maria project put at risk Peru's reputation as a top foreign investment destination.
Farmer Victoriano Huayna was killed Wednesday and 12 other protesters were wounded when police opened fire on a demonstration, authorities said.
A forensic exam determined a bullet killed Huayna, said a local doctor who agreed to reveal the information only if not quoted by name for reasons of personal security. The other 12 were wounded by shotgun pellets, local health director Walter Vera said. He said six were hospitalized and six treated and released.
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