Hundreds of tourists who were held hostage by an indigenous tribe in Peru’s Loreto province have been released, according to local media outlets.
The group of 248 tourists, which includes American and British citizens, were on a boat near the Loreto district of Urarinas on Thursday when the vessel was detained by members of the indigenous Cuninico community, who reportedly took the group hostage to protest a recent oil spill in a local river.
In a statement Friday morning, Cuninico community leader Watson Trujill announced that the group would be set free by noon. ABC News later confirmed that the group had been released.
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“They recognize why we are doing it and that helps us. We feel that they are allies because they see the reality in which we are living,” Trujill said of the hostages.
Angela Ramirez, one of the tourists held hostage, had told Peruvian broadcaster RPP that there were elderly people, children, and at least one pregnant woman among the group.
“They told us that it was because they sought the State's attention to solve the oil spill 46 times and that as a result there are now two deceased children and a woman,” Ramirez told the outlet.
According to posts by Ramirez, the group had been traveling through the Peruvian jungle for roughly a week, and were captured by the tribe’s members when they attempted to cross over the Cuninico river by boat.
“The faster they are heard, the faster they will let us go. Help me share, we are physically fine. Help me help them be heard, ” Ramirez wrote in a Facebook post.
The oil spill that reportedly inspired the Cuninico community members to take the group hostage occurred on Sept. 16, when the Petroperú pipeline burst and contaminated Peru’s Marañón River.
Earlier reports about the oil spill suggested that the pipeline was cut “intentionally,” according to RPP.
“The regulatory bodies have been informed of the finding made and the corresponding complaints will be made against those who are responsible for this unfortunate fact,” the state-owned petroleum company Petroperú said in a statement at the time of the incident, adding that the spill “not only affects the environment, the safety, health and quality of life of the neighboring population, but it also affects the development and promotion of the hydrocarbon industry in the country.”
In his statement to RPP on Friday, community leader Trujill stressed that the hostage situation was necessary to raise awareness of the “constant oil spills that have been taking place in the native communities,” adding that “we have gone to the boat to inform [the tourists] why this is being done: because of the president’s neglect.”
