SANTIAGO. – One policeman and three civilians were injured amid violent protests today in south Santiago communities, staged to demand road repairs, drinking water and better electricity service.

Police spokesman Jesus Cordero said the agent Edwin Rojas received a head injury from a hurled stone, while the three civilians were hit by shotgun pellets fired by police.

The official said the demonstrators fired shots, hurled stones and other objects at the police sent to the protest scene to restore order, version the organizers reject, affirming that they only sought a peaceful protest in the streets, but were met by police repression instead.

Protesters’ spokesmen Jose Alberto Filpo said the highway that links Santiago with those communities is “unusable”; the blackouts continue and water is scarce, even when the facilities of the aqueduct that supplies much of the region are in that zone.

The demonstrators have retained dozens of passenger and private vehicles, as well as heavy equipment of the cement company Cementos Cibao.

The organizers say the protest is indefinite, and is expected to affect the towns Matanzas, Palo Amarillo, El Papayo, La Ceibita, El Guano, La Jagua, Baitoa, Don Juan, Lopez, Los Melaos and others.

Police Cibao commander Francisco Abreu is trying to convince the organizers to lift the blockade.

For years protest in that part of the province are common, as the roads linking south Santiago with nearby towns meander through rugged terrain, and prone to damage and landslides that need constant repairs.