An Associated Press video released today shows Spanish miners in the northwestern provinces of Asturias and Leon in clashes with police over harsh austerity measures including major cuts to subsidies in the mining industry.
For more than 40 days, 14 minors have voluntarily locked themselves 3,000 feet underground in a mine to protest against governmental cuts. Conservative president President Mariano Rajoy announced in April that the government would cut subsidies in the sector by 63 percent.
The entire mining sector in the region has been on general strike since May 28.
The miners on strike maintain that the sector will plummet without governmental aid.
Meanwhile protests by the miners against the cuts, which began in May, have become more radical. Striking miners continue to block roads and railways while other miners, some armed with homemade rockets and slingshots, clash with unrelenting riot police on a daily basis.
Scores of miners from the region will be marching in protest to Madrid, where they plan to stage a demonstration on July 11.
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Spanish Miners Battle Police Over Austerity (Associated Press)
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Spanish Civil Guard officers fire tear gas canisters during a clash with coal miners on motorway AP-66, between Asturias and Leon, in Pola de Lena, near Oviedo, northern Spain June 26, 2012. (Reuters/Eloy Alonso)
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