Reporting from Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia -- Protests by indigenous communities over oil drilling and mining in the Peruvian Amazon region turned violent Friday, leaving at least 13 people dead in clashes with police and subsequent rioting.
According to local officials, nine police officers and four Indians were killed in an early morning confrontation on a road between Jaen and Bagua in northern Peru and in the protests that followed. The Bagua public defender's office said 45 people were injured.
Violence continued throughout much of the day. Rioters sacked city offices, the local headquarters of President Alan Garcia's political party and 50 stores.
Some reports said the death toll was even higher. One said protesters were holding 38 police officers hostage and threatening to kill them unless the police withdrew.
The Health Ministry said it was sending emergency teams of doctors and paramedics to the area, raising concern that the casualty totals were far higher than officially reported.
Tensions between the indigenous communities and the government have been boiling since early April, when tribal members began protesting Garcia's granting of mineral development rights to foreign companies. Half a dozen indigenous communities claim the jungle as their ancestral lands.
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