Clashes between gold miners and police have left 18 people wounded in Peru’s southeastern region of Madre de Dios.
The miners had been blocking a highway near the town of Mazuko, in protest against a law that will require all informal gold mining to stop. Doctors say at least 15 gold miners and three police officers suffered gunshot wounds when police moved to reopen the highway.
The mining is ravaging Peru’s rainforest and poisoning animals and humans with mercury. The estimated 40,000 miners are also angry because the government sharply reduced gasoline deliveries, leaving their mining machinery idle.
