Over 3,000 protestors, accompanied by 200 riot police, marched into the Peruvian capital of Lima to protest the jailing of Nelson Palomino, accused of spreading anti-government propaganda, and to speak with Prime Minister Carlos Ferrero to support a law to protect Coca consumption. The leaves of the coca plant, the growers protest, has been chewed in Andean culture for centuries for ritualistic and religious purposes. The government however, maintains that most of the tea-like product, grown in rural jungle areas, is harvested mostly by poor Peruvians who are often paid considerably more by drug traffickers for it than for other crops.
