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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Mourners have carried a coffin holding a 61-year-old farmer through the streets of a southern Peru port city after the man became the first fatality of a monthlong protest against a Mexican-owned copper mining project.
Farmer Victoriano Huayna was killed Wednesday and 12 other protesters were wounded when police opened fire on a demonstration, authorities said. A police statement said 11 officers were injured and added that officers had orders not to use lethal force.
Farmers and local leaders fear the $1.3 billion Tia Maria open-pit mine will contaminate irrigation water in the rice farming-rich Tambo valley on Peru's desert coast.
The project is owned by a Peruvian subsidiary of Grupo Mexico, which says the crop damage are unfounded.
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