The World - News from July 20, 1988

Riot police wounded five people and arrested at least 270 protesters when a nationwide general strike in Peru flared into street clashes and induced leftist guerrilla violence, officials and strike leaders said. The 48-hour general strike was launched to protest government economic policy. Strikers and student sympathizers blocked main arteries leading into Lima with bonfires and rocks but were driven off by police using tear gas and firing water cannons, reporters said. Police quickly reopened the roads. Meanwhile, Maoist Shining Path rebels killed six officers and wounded five in an attack against a police post in Pozuzo, a jungle town 170 miles east of Lima, police said.