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A GROUP of 70 tourists, including three Britons, held hostage in Peru have told of their ordeal after their release yesterday.
Pregnant women and children – one a month-old baby – were among the holidaymakers snatched by tribal protesters on a boat.
The Cunicio tribe had warned they would hold the tourists captive for at least eight days in a bid to get aid from the Peruvian Government.
They acted following an oil spill which sent 2,500 tons of crude into the Maranon River.
Respectful
The Cunicos say the pollution killed two children and a woman. But yesterday the kidnappers relented and released their hostages.
Charlotte Wiltshire, 54, of Cardigan, Wales, who was detained along with her family said the situation had been “grim” and spoke of the horror of being surrounded by machetewielding Amazonians with little water in sweltering conditions.
She said: “When you have got 120 people squashed into a very small amount of space you’re getting tense because everybody’s just getting fed up with the situation.”
“Being hysterical won’t help anyone, I have become a temporary godmother to the baby on the boat and we are trying to stay calm.”
Chief Watson Trujillo said: “The right and respect for life must prevail, in this context, we are going to provide the facilities so that the people who are on the boat can move to their destinations.”
Peruvian Angela Ramirez posted on Facebook: “We already have hardly no water to drink, the sun is shining very strong, there are babies crying, the youngest is only one-month-old, pregnant women, disabled people, and the elderly are on board.
“Now we do not have electricity to charge our phones, nor water to wash ourselves.
On September 16 the 500-mile state-owned Petroperu pipeline ruptured, leaking oil into the Cunicio ravine, contaminating the river downstream and affecting about 2,500 indigenous people.
Petroperu said the pipe had been deliberately cut.