Indigenous people in Peruvian Amazon detain tourists in protest against oil spill

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - A group of tourists on a river boat in the Peruvian Amazon have been detained since Thursday by an Indigenous group as part of a protest against a recent oil spill.

Local media reported that at least 150 tourists are being held hostage in the Maranon River, in the province of Cuninico, by locals seeking to draw the government's attention after an oil spill.

"We have no water to wash ourselves, we have nothing," Angela Ramirez, a Peruvian tourist who is among the hostages, told a local TV channel.

According to Ramirez, the Indigenous community intends “to keep us here for about eight days if they don't receive help from the state for the oil spill problem.”

The president of the Cuninico community, Watson Trujillo, said that the measure was taken to "call the attention of the government" to assess the environmental damage from the spillage of 2,500 tons of crude oil into the river caused by a rupture in a pipeline.

The Indigenous community is requesting the presence of the President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, as they say that some 2,500 people living on the banks of the river are unable to feed themselves or drink the water because it is contaminated.

The fuel leak was reported in September, when four workers of the state-owned company Petroperu were kidnapped and later released.

There are people from France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Brazil and the United Kingdom among the detained tourists held while traveling on a boat.

"There are many children, the youngest must be one month old, there are elderly people, there are people with disabilities, there are pregnant women; it is a critical situation," Ramirez said.

The Peruvian government has not made any official statements on the situation.