British and U.S. tourists are among 70 held hostage by tribe in Peru

British and Americans are among 70 tourists who have been taken hostage by an indigenous group in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. They were in a party of travelers also from France, Spain and Switzerland on a river boat which was held up by locals. A leader of the indigenous group said they wanted to ‘catch the government’s attention with this action’ after not getting enough state help over an oil spill in September. 

Angela Ramirez, one of those detained, said they have been told they could be held hostage for up to eight days until a solution is reached, RPP reported. She wrote in a Facebook post: ‘We spent the night here. We already have hardly no water to drink, the sun is shining very strong, there are babies crying, the youngest is only one month old, pregnant women, disabled people, and the elderly are on board.’

She added: ‘Now we do not have electricity to charge our phones, nor water to wash ourselves. Help me share please.’ Angela (pictured) had been on a cycling trip through the Peruvian jungle for eight days when they tried to travel through the Cuninico River by boat today and were detained. In a previous post, she said: ‘Help me publish, we are in Cuninico an indigenous community of the jungle, we are hostages of the community, as there were 46 oil spills, from which two children and one woman died. They are KIND AND RESPECTFUL to us, but it is the only way they have found to look for solutions for their community.’  

 ‘The quicker they are heard the quicker they will let us go… Help me share, we’re physically fine. Help me help them to be heard.’ Watson Trujillo, who leads the Cuninico community, said the ‘drastic measures’ should put pressure on the government to send a delegation to assess the damage from the spill of 2,500 tons of crude oil into the Cuninico river.

The detainees would spend the night on the vessel while awaiting a solution, he added. Trujillo said he would return to the boat today to evaluate the possibility of releasing them. The government and police did not comment on the incident, which took place on a tributary of the Maranon river. Indigenous communities had been blocking the transit of all vessels on the river in protest over the spill, which was caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline.

On September 27, the government declared a 90-day state of emergency in the affected region, which is home to the Cuninico and Urarinas communities and where about 2,500 indigenous people live. The 800km-long (497 miles) Norperuano pipeline, owned by state-owned Petroperu, was built four decades ago to transport crude oil from the Amazon to ports. According to Petroperu, the spill was the result of an intentional eight-inch cut in the pipeline. 

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