Police repression in northern Peru leaves two dead

Lima, January 1 (RHC)-- At least two civilians were killed and ten injured by police repression in Peru on Wednesday.  The police attacked a group of agricultural workers who were blocking a highway in the north of the country.  The farm workers were demonstrating against the new agrarian labor law approved by Congress on Tuesday, increasing to four the number of deaths from this conflict.

Among those who died on Wednesday was a 16-year-old boy, who apparently was killed by gunfire.  The second protester was identified by local media as Reynaldo Reyes Ulloa, 27 years old, who died when he was taken to a health center.

After learning the number of victims of the police repression, the Peruvian Ombudsman's Office demanded that the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police "explain what happened, as soon as possible."

Lenin Bazán, a congressman of the Frente Amplio, accompanied by a group of legislators, assured that the deaths are due to the "repression" of the National Police to unblock the Pan-American Highway, the main axis of transport in Peru.

"Enough!  Minister of the Interior, I call on you once again to take action so that the police withdraw and the violent repression ends," Bazán wrote on social networks.

The President of Congress, Mirtha Vasquez, lamented the death of the two people and condemned the police action against the protests.