**Police in Peru have fired tear gas to disperse protesters blocking a highway near Pisco - the southern city that was ravaged by an earthquake in 2007.**The demonstrators were denouncing what they said was a lack of action on the part of the government of President Alan Garcia to rebuild the city.
More than 500 people were killed and some 75,000 homes destroyed in the region by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake.
But two years later, many people in the region still live in tents and shacks.
Many Pisco residents say millions of dollars in reconstruction funds have never reached them, accusing officials of corruption.
“The president [Alan Garcia] and the [Pisco] mayor are all liars. They haven’t done anything,” local resident Nilda Solis Miranda was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Fellow resident Aria Loayzo said: “All the streets are destroyed. There are no completed homes. There isn’t a good administration for the donations of money sent from other countries for our province.”
Mr Garcia, who has seen his approval rating drop to under 30% in recent weeks, had promised a speedy rebuilding of the region after the quake.
But his government has been widely criticised for its chaotic reconstruction efforts and is now on the defensive, the BBC’s Dan Collyns in Peru says.