Belgians among group of tourists who were held hostage in Peru for 24 hours | Abroad

A group of some 70 people on board were detained while taking a riverboat trip in the Peruvian Amazon. The hostage takers acted in protest at a lack of government assistance following an oil spill in the area.

“With this action, we draw the attention of the government. There are foreigners and Peruvians, together about 70 people,” Watson Trujillo, the leader of the Cuninico community, told local radio station RPP. Trujillo said his group had taken the “radical measure” of putting pressure on the government to send a delegation and assess environmental damage after 2,500 tons of crude oil spilled into the Cuninico River on Sept. 16.

Those on board, including pregnant women, people with disabilities and a one-month-old baby, spent a day and a night without water or electricity. Leader Trujillo blew off the hostage situation on Friday. “The law and respect for life are paramount. We will do what is necessary so that the people who were on the boat can get to their destination.”

Among the hostages were Americans, Spaniards, French, British, Swiss, a German and also “a number of Belgians”, according to Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs will not comment for the time being on how many Belgians are involved and how they are currently doing.

Angela Ramirez, a young woman detained, said on social media that the hostage-takers treated them kindly and respectfully. “But this is the only way they found a solution for their community,” the woman said.

Indigenous communities had previously blocked the passage of all ships on the river in protest at the spill caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline. On September 27, the government declared a 90-day state of emergency in the region, which is home to the communities of Cuninico and Urarinas and where about 2,500 indigenous people live.

Owned by the state-owned Petroperu, the 800km-long Norperuano pipeline was constructed four decades ago to transport crude oil from the Amazon Basin to Piura, on the coast.

Petroperu said the spill was the result of a deliberate 21cm cut in the pipeline. The state-owned company claims that the pipeline is deliberately damaged time and again. More than fifty claims have been registered since December last year. The company says it is cleaning up the pollution and providing residents with drinking water and food.