Peru Coca Eradication Work Turns Violent; at Least 2 Dead

[TomSea]

Peru Coca Eradication Work Turns Violent; at Least 2 Dead


FILE - A coca farmer walks on coca leaves dried on a field in the Amazon jungle valley of Monzon in Tingo Maria April 18, 2007. Peru's potential cocaine production is at a 25-year high

LIMA, PERU —

Two farmers were killed in clashes in Peru that erupted Friday as authorities launched an operation to uproot coca plants — used to make cocaine — in a region near the border with Bolivia, a local mayor and the police said.

A third person was in critical condition and had been taken to a local hospital, said Roger Larico, the mayor of the district of San Gaban in the region of Puno.

The eradication team, 158 civilian workers and 72 police officers, had arrived to San Gaban before dawn to destroy illegal coca farms in the coming days, but were attacked by people wielding machetes and sticks as they sat up their camp, the Peruvian National Police said in a statement.

Read more at: https://www.voanews.com/a/peru-coca-eradication-work-turns-violent-at-least-2-dead/4874234.html

It certainly looks beautiful to be an area that causes so much grief.