Tribesmen in Peru held tourists hostage, including a Swiss man

Swiss hostages also do well

Indigenous people in Peru free more than a hundred kidnapped tourists

In a protest against the government, tribes in Peru arrested more than 100 people – including a Swiss man. The background is the oil spill from the pipeline. All the hostages have now been released.

In the Peruvian Amazon, tribes have held dozens of tourists hostage to protest government inaction following an oil spill. “We want to draw the attention of the government with this action,” Watson Trujillo, head of the northern municipality of Cuenico, told radio station RPP on Thursday (local time).

He added that more than 100 tourists were Peruvians and foreigners held captive on a ship in the Maranon tributary. According to the information, foreign holidaymakers come from Switzerland, Germany, USA, Spain, France and Great Britain. Among them are women and children.

All the hostages have now been released. Tourists are already on their way home, Tourism Minister Roberto Sanchez said in Lima on Friday. Those kidnapped were 27 tourists from the United States, Spain, France, Great Britain and Switzerland, and about 80 Peruvian tourists. According to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), a Swiss passport holder was among those released.

2500 tons of crude oil came in the river

Bligh telephoned Watson Trujillo Acosta, the leader of the Cuenico community, about the hostage crisis. He explained: “We didn’t kidnap anyone, we stopped a tourist boat. The ship is now in a safe place on the banks of the Maran River valley. Everyone is fine, he insisted. He continued: “We did it on September 23rd after the oil spill on September 16th. .”

Tribal representative Trujillo has called for a government team to be sent to the region to study the environmental impact of the Norperuano oil pipeline rupture in mid-September. The accident spilled 2,500 tonnes of crude oil into the Cuinigo River.

Earlier, tribal people had already blocked the passage of all ships in the river to draw attention to the oil slick. In late September, the government declared a 90-day state of emergency in the region, home to about 2,500 indigenous people. The 800-kilometer Norperuano pipeline, owned by state-owned Petroperu, was built about 40 years ago to transport crude oil from the Amazon to the coast. According to PetroPeru, the pipeline was intentionally damaged by a 21-centimeter-long cut. (SDA/AFP/chapter/dzc/kes)