First modification: Last modification:
Lima (AFP) – The Ombudsman of Peru announced this Friday that it reached an agreement for the release of a group of foreign and Peruvian tourists held by indigenous people from the Amazon who are protesting the lack of government help after an oil spill.
“After dialogue with the Apu of the Cuninico communities, our request was accepted to release people who remained on boats held in protest against contamination after #Oil Spill in the Marañón River,” the Ombudsman said in a message on his Twitter social network account.
The number of the total number of people detained, however, became uncertain, after a passenger indicated that they add up to about 150, more than double the 70 indicated on Thursday by the Cuninico leader, Watson Trujillo. The Ombudsman did not specify the number either.
The group, which includes at least twenty citizens from the United States, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, has been detained since 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, and had almost no provisions, according to Ángela Ramírez, who is at board among those affected.
Ramírez explained that he is with 10 Americans who traveled to the Amazon on an adventure cycling excursion.
“Emotionally there is everything. There has been a lot of anxiety, a lot of fatigue, yesterday it was colder, today it is quite sunny, but we are in the boat and that covers us a lot,” described the also cyclist.
He explained that some members of the Cuninico community who did not agree with the detention helped them with two jerrycans of water.
“We have that water but we don’t know what will happen later if we don’t manage to leave today. There is a month and a half old baby who must be breastfed, and his mother needs to eat well,” added the Peruvian athlete.
“Today we are going to provide the facilities so that these people can go to their place of origin,” said the native leader Cuninico this Friday to the state channel TV Peru, without providing further details.
The leader pointed out that they took “this radical measure” so that the government sends a delegation to verify the environmental damage suffered by the spill of some 2,500 barrels of crude oil in the Cuninico River on September 16.
