A 48-hour general strike began today in southern Peru against the controversial Tia Maria mining project and in support of the protests by Tambo Valley residents to demand its cancellation. The region is under a State of Emergency decreed by President Ollanta Humala that will last for two months, with constitutional rights such as the freedom of assembly and movement suspended and police empowered to enter homes without a search warrant. Humala has send the army into all six regions of southern Peru and the northern mining region of Cajamarca. Activists in the two month long protests, which have thus far claimed at least five lives, charge that the mine's operations will harm the environment and local agricultural production. Rael Mora reports from Lima. teleSUR