Status: 04.11.2022 20:11
A trip to the Amazon ended in a hostage situation for 70 tourists. Peruvian indigenous people had arrested their ship to draw attention to an oil leak. Now they want to release the people.
Tourists held by protesting villagers on a boat in the Peruvian Amazon are to be released. “After discussions with the village chief of Cuninico, our request to release the people was accepted,” the Peruvian government’s civil bureau said. “The measure will be implemented shortly.” Mayor Watson Trujillo Acosta confirmed the decision on radio station RPP: “Respect for life must come first. We will make it possible for people to be brought to their destination on the ship.” demonstrate their government’s inaction after an oil leak in a pipeline. “We want to raise the government’s attention with this action,” said Watson Trujillo Acosta, community leader of the town of Cuninico, the radio station RPP.
The villagers had stopped a ship with around 70 tourists from home and abroad on board on the Marañón River and arrested the passengers. A German vacationer also belongs to the group, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office announced. Among the passengers on the ship are said to be tourists from the USA, Spain, France, Great Britain and Switzerland. A total of 150 people have been held on various ships for around 24 hours, as reported by radio station RPP.
Most recently, there was a leak in the Norperuano pipeline in September. Workers from the state-owned company Petroperu then erected an oil barricade on the Cuninico River.
Image: AFP
pressure on the government
By arresting the vacationers, the villagers wanted to persuade the government to do something about the oil spill in the region. “We demand that a state of emergency be declared and that a commission led by the President visit our region,” said village chief Trujillo Acosta. Most recently, oil had repeatedly leaked from a pipeline belonging to the energy company Petroperú and had polluted the Marañón river. “They are kind and respectful to us, but this is the only way they have to find a solution for their village,” Ángela Ramírez, a cyclist who was stuck on the ship, wrote on Facebook. “The sooner they are heard, the sooner they let us go.”
The tourists understood why the villagers took the radical measure, said mayor Trujillo Acosta. “They recognize what we do and that helps us. We see them as allies because they see the reality we live in.” The Citizens’ Bureau of the Peruvian government called for dialogue between the affected villages on the river and the authorities to be resumed.
Petroperú announced that the pipeline had been deliberately sabotaged several times. More than 50 cases of damage have been registered since December last year. According to its own information, the company took care of cleaning up the affected areas and supplied the residents with drinking water and food.