Peruvian police officer shot dead near illegal mining site

One police officer was killed and three were wounded while on patrol to verify reports of illegal mining in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru’s southeastern Madre de Dios region. Eight officers from the police’s Environmental Protection Office and a representative of the National Protected Areas Service were ambushed in broad daylight on Sept. 22 near the Interoceanic Highway by a group of eight to 10 gunmen, officials said. Interior Minister Carlos Basombrío blamed illegal miners for the attack. Alluvial gold mining has destroyed some 70,000 hectares (270 square miles) of forest in the highly biodiverse Madre de Dios region, according to recent studies. The government has been trying for months to evict miners from Tambopata, which is a popular nature tourism destination. The brazen afternoon attack marked an escalation of violence in a region that already had a high murder rate in its gold fields. It may have been... [Log in to read more]

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