Peru, five coca leaf producers, 13 others injured when confronted by police

Five producers of coca leaf died and 13 others were injured today when confronted by a group of police in the Peruvian region of Huanuco, said the representative of the Ombudsman’s Office, Pier Paolo Ricardo March.

Two of the dead were identified as Rider Roque Moreno and Juan Espinoza Loarte, but still working to determine the identity of the other three people killed in the shooting that occurred in the district of The Monsoon, belonging to the province of Huanuco Huamalíes. The district mayor, Job Chavez said this morning in a radio interview that the confrontation occurred on an operation to eradicate coca plantations, but the Peruvian Interior Minister, Wilfredo Pedraza, at a press conference denied the existence of deceased and such operations in that area. Read Article