Lima, March 28 (Prensa Latina) The long protest of a peasant community blocking a large mine continued this Thursday between majority calls for dialogue and voices demanding a tough hand, which is paid for by throwing stones at an official helicopter in the area.

Social organizations, political forces on the left and center, human rights groups, the Catholic Church and other sectors point out that, in the face of extreme tension, the government should avoid the violence that in similar cases has left people dead and wounded.

The president of the parliament, Daniel Salaverry, joined today neoliberal commentators and related voices, demanded the government 'firm hand' to impose order and the rule of law to the inhabitants of the community of Fuerabamba, who have been protesting for more than 50 days.

The protest of the peasant community of Fuerabamba demands to the transnational mining company MMG, an economic compensation for the use of collective lands for the passage of 350 daily trucks that transport ore, with great impact on the environment, to the port of Matarani, for processing.

'The government has the obligation to impose the rule of law,'' Salaverry declared when rejecting the throwing of stones at a helicopter in which three ministers had arrived in the blockade zone, in the south Andean region of Cusco.

The government released photos of the helicopter with the windshield with two holes caused by the stones, and of the silhouette of a peasant with what looks like a sling, in an elevation, and who would be the perpetrator of the attack, although this would also confirm that it was an isolated act.

The peasants rejected the attempt of contact of the ministers of Transport and Communications, Edmer Trujillo; Health, Zulema Tomas, and Development and Social Inclusion, Paola Bustamante, because they demanded the freedom of the president of the community of Fuerabamba, Gregorio Rojas.

The leader was arrested last week along with the community's legal advisors, Frank and Jorge Chavez, the latter accused of fuelling the conflict for profit, which the villagers support them.

Despite yesterday's incident, Ministers Tomás and Bustamante traveled yesterday by land to the town of Santo Tomás, together with the Vice Minister of Government, Raúl Molina, and other officials, to a meeting with authorities of the municipality of Santo Tomás, in the Cusco province of Chumbivilcas.

The meeting seeks an approach to the villagers of Fuerabamba to deal with their claims, although they demand as a condition the freedom of their leader, in which the government argues that it has nothing to do with being a measure of the public ministry and the judiciary.