Lima, November 5 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Indigenous groups protested in southern Peru on Wednesday against the Peruvian government’s policies and to celebrate the 235th anniversary of Tupac Amaru’s rebellion against Spanish colonizers.

Various indigenous organizations from major Peruvian districts, including Cusco, Tacna, Puno and Lima, came together to start what they call an “uprising” against the government as a result of unchecked corporate extra-activism on ancestral lands and state repression of protesters.

Using logs and sticks, hundreds of Ashaninka Indigenous people from the Central Rainforest in Peru blocked highways to disrupt traffic for various hours.  Meanwhile, others participated in marches and symbolic parades.

The indigenous groups demand a definitive end to transnational mining projects on their land, including the controversial Tia Maria project run by the U.S.-Mexican multinational Southern Copper Corporation.

They seek the resignation of President Ollanta Humala and his ministers due to the human rights abuses indigenous communities say they have endured at the hands of corporations and the security forces that protect them.

The date of the protest was specifically meant to coincide with the 235th anniversary of Tupac Amaru’s rebellion against the Spanish rule.

Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru II, and his wife, Micaela Bastidas, led the largest uprising in colonial Spanish America. From 1780-1783, the uprising roared across the Andes, stretching from the rebel base just south of Cuzco through Charcas, Bolivia and into what became Northern Argentina and Chile. Rebels ransacked large land estates, razed the hated textile mills or obrajes, and targeted Europeans, those who were deemed pukakunkas or red necks in Quechua, the language of the Incas.