They had been kidnapped Thursday by members of the Cuninico community who were trying to attract the attention of the government after a serious oil leak in a river.
Le Monde With AFP
Aboriginal residents of the Amazon region of Peru released a group of more tourists on Friday, November 4, November 4 that they had taken hostage the day before. These members of the Cuninico community intended to protest against the lack of government aid after an oil leak. The liberation of tourists intervenes following negotiations, announced the office of the Peruvian mediator for human rights.
Traveling aboard a river boat, these people had been kidnapped Thursday by members of the Cuninico community who wanted to react the Peruvian authorities following the spill, on September 16, of 2,500 tonnes of crude in a river.
Women and children were among the retained tourists, 27 of whom were from the United States, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The other 80s were Peruvians.
“They liberate us all,” said Angela Ramirez, a Peruvian cyclist who was part of the group, after the human rights mediator. She added that there had been “a lot of anxiety, a lot of fatigue” among tourists. Holds for twenty-eight hours, they were starting to lack water and food.
“They are already going back to their places of origin,” announced the Minister of Tourism, Roberto Sanchez, to journalists in Lima.
a tear on the largest oil pipeline
According to an indigenous official, this hostage -taking had been decided so that the government sends a delegation to note the environmental damage caused by the oil leak. This manager had added that the passengers thus retained would spend the night on the boat while waiting for a solution to be found.
The incident had occurred on an tributary of the Marañon, a river facing the territory of the Cuninico community.