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Peru police patrol attacked by gun-toting protesters

A police patrol has been attacked in Peru's northern jungle during protests against Argentine oil company Pluspetrol Norte, killing one officer and wounding 11.

A special operations police patrol was attacked on Saturday with shotguns while securing the company's airstrip, held by protesters for three days, according to a national police news release.

The site was secured and protests had ceased on Sunday, said Colonel Perez Vargas, national chief of police information.

The police captured three suspects in the attack, two of them with shotguns.

Governor Yvan Vasquez, of Loreto Province, told the Andina state news agency he is attempting to establish a dialogue between the oil company, a subsidiary of Pluspetrol SA, and protesters, many of whom are members of local Indian communities.

It is still unknown whether the attackers are members of indigenous communities who took control of the airstrip or outsiders infiltrators, according to Vasquez and other regional authorities.

Pluspetrol Norte's operations were suspended when protests began Thursday to protect workers and equipment.

In 2006, native groups took control of three Pluspetrol oil wells to protest decades of water pollution they say is ruining their health and the environment. Government health studies have found Achuar Indians in the zone suffer high blood concentrations of cadmium and lead.

Pluspetrol Norte agreed to stop dumping toxic waste into the rain forest by July after protests by the Native Federation of the Corrientes River shut down their oil operations for two weeks.

Vasquez said that a federation leader assured him that his organization is opposed to the violent attack on the police patrol.
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