Peruvian President Alan Garcia

But leaders of the two-month roadblock say at least 40 indigenous people, including three children, were killed and that the authorities are covering up the massacre by throwing bodies in the river.

Additionally, foreign activists on the scene in the town of Bagua, in the northern province of Amazonas, report that the police opened fire early in the morning on the unarmed protesters, some of whom were still sleeping, and deliberately mowed them down as they held up their arms or attempted to flee.

In response, the activists quote eyewitnesses as saying, another group of indigenous people who were farther up the hill seized and killed a number of police officers, apparently in “self-defense.”

National ombudswoman Beatriz Merino reported June 7 that at least 24 police and 10 civilians had been killed, along with 89 indigenous people wounded and 79 arrested. But the figures continue to grow.

“We have killed each other, Peruvians against Peruvians,” said indigenous leader Shapion Noningo, the new spokesman for the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association (AIDESEP)—whose groups represent 28 federations of indigenous peoples.

AIDESEP led the protests that began two months ago, which have included blockades of traffic along roads and rivers and occupations of oil industry installations in various provinces.

A few hours earlier, President Alan Garcìa had said there was “a conspiracy afoot to try to keep us from making use of our natural wealth.” He was referring to the native peoples' fierce opposition to 10 decrees issued by his government that opened up indigenous land to private investment by oil, mining and logging companies and to agribusiness, including biofuel plantations.

The decrees, which were passed by the government under special powers received from Congress to facilitate implementation of Peru's free trade agreement with the United States, are considered unconstitutional by the indigenous protesters. A legislative committee also recommended last December that they be overturned.

On June 4, governing party lawmakers suspended a debate on one of the decrees, the “forestry and wildlife law,” fueling the demonstrators' anger.

According to the 1993 census, indigenous people made up one-third of the Peruvian population. But more recent estimates put the proportion at 45 percent, with most of the rest of the population of 28 million being of mixed-race heritage.

Leaders of the indigenous protests say the government is manipulating information and blaming them for incidents that could have been avoided if Congress had repealed the decrees that sparked the first native “uprising” in August 2008, which flared up again in April this year.