The nearly 150 tourists who had been held for 24 hours in Peru were released this afternoon after the indigenous community of Cuninico blocked the passage of the boats in which they were traveling in protest against an oil spill, as confirmed by the head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The minister, Alessandra Herrera, has said that the group — which included a Spaniard — is being transferred from Cuninico to Nauta and has asked that the free transit of these people be respected, as it is a constitutional right, according to the official Twitter account of the ministry.
It has also pointed out that the fuel spill that has triggered these events, «was not caused by the deterioration of a pipeline of the Oledocuto Norperuano, but that it was caused by human action».
Hours before, the president of the community of Cuninico, Watson Trujillo Acosta, has assured that the passengers on board different boats in the province of Loreto, would be released «before noon». «The right and respect for life must be prioritized. In this context, we are going to provide the facilities so that the people who are on the boat can be transferred to their destinations. That will be before noon (local time),» he said in an interview with the Peruvian RPP.
Likewise, the Ombudsman’s Office informed that the communities of Cuninico have accepted his request to release the people held in the Marañon River, a measure that, according to what the agency has published in its profile in the same social network, would be executed shortly.
In view of this situation, the President of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, has accused the community of Cuninico of cutting the pipes of the Norperuvian Pipeline in order to later «claim compensation» through protests.
However, the representative of the community, Galo Vásquez, has rejected these statements, stressing that they do not have the necessary tools to drill the pipes that transport crude oil through the Amazon region.
We have not been able to damage ourselves,» he told the media.
The protesters, who belong to the district of Urarinas in the province of Loreto, claim that two children and a woman have died in the area due to oil spills from a 40-year-old pipeline in the Cuninico river.
Among the tourists were a one-month-old baby, people with disabilities and pregnant women. Of the 70 or so foreign passengers, there were people with nationalities from the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Switzerland, as reported by the British channel Sky News.
The pipeline, which transports oil from the Amazon region to the northwestern city of Piura, has been the scene of several oil spills in recent years. According to the latest reports, the last oil spill of some 2,500 barrels into the Cuninico River took place on September 16.
