Tourist hostages on Amazon boat freed after Peru oil protest

"We are hostages of the community" around 100 tourists were held on the river boat, this weekend. Photo / Angela Ramirez, Facebook

An Indigenous leader in Peru's Amazon region said Friday that his community had released 98 riverboat passengers — 23 of them foreign tourists — who had been detained overnight as a protest to demand government attention to complaints of oil pollution.

Wadson Trujillo said the passengers, including citizens of Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France as well as Peru, set off along the Maranon River at 1:45 p.m. local time aboard the vessel named Eduardo 11, which had been held since the day before by residents of Cuninico. The passengers were en route from Yurimaguas to Iquitos, the main city in Peru's Amazon region.

But he said the people of Cuninico would continue protests — and blocking the passage of boats — until the government gives them concrete help.

"We have seen ourselves obliged to take this measure to summon the attention of a state that has not paid attention to us for eight years," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

He asked the government of President Pedro Castillo to declare an emergency in the area to deal with the effects of oil pollution.

Trujillo said oil spills in 2014 and again in September this year "have caused much damage" to people who depend on fish from the river as a significant part of their diet.

"The people have had to drink water and eat fish contaminated with petroleum without any government being concerned," he said.

The Cuninico reportedly held the tourist boat over oil pollution. Photo / Twitter; Mongabay Latam

He said the spills had affected not only the roughly 1,000 inhabitants of his township but nearly 80 other communities, many of which lack running water, electricity or telephone service.

Peru's Health Ministry took blood samples in the region in 2016 and found that about half the tests from Cuninico showed levels of mercury and cadmium above levels recommended by the World Health Organization.

"The children have those poisons in their blood. The people suffer from stomach problems — that is every day," Trujillo said.

Prime Minister Aníbal Torres said in response to Indigenous demands that the "evils of 200 years of republican life cannot be resolved in a day, in a few months or in a few years."

Tourists held on the river cruise

On Friday tourists aboard the boat raised the alarm, asking for help.

However some of the hostages were remarkably understanding of the situation, although they hoped they would soon be set free.

Ángela Ramírez, one of the hostages was able to write a message to facebook laying out the situation:

"We are in Cuninico an indigenous community of the Jungle, we are hostages of the community, as there were 46 oil spills, which caused the death of 2 children and 1 woman.

"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 we been here since 10am they took the boat and took the battery."

By Sunday patience and water reserves were running low.

The Peruvian cycling tourist Ramírez told Deutsche Welle there had been "a lot of anxiety, much fatigue" amongst the group.

- Associated Press with additonal reporting