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Peruvian Tribe Take Gov’t Helicopter And Officials Hostage

REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Files

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JP Carroll National Security & Foreign Affairs Reporter
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An oil spill in February 2016 led to a Peruvian indigenous tribe taking control of a government helicopter Sunday and holding hostage eight officials over emergency relief allocation.

The Wampis tribe of Mayuriaga in the Amazon jungle Department of Loreto took control of a military helicopter and its travelers. Tribe members are demanding Mayuriaga be included in the list of communities being given emergency aid to deal with a February oil spill.

Petroperu is the state-owned oil company responsible for the spill. Since the beginning of the hostage crisis it has been reported the tribe has released four officials.

Deputy Culture Minister Patricia Balbuena admitted the tribe should have been given access to relief aid and a mix-up must have happened at the local government level.

The 40-year-old pipeline “spilled 1,000 barrels of oil in Mayuriaga on 3 February, nine days after a leak in the same duct poured 2,000 barrels near eight other indigenous communities in the same Amazonian region,” according to The Guardian. Peru’s environmental regulator the Agency for Assessment and Environmental Control may be fined $17 million if it is proven the spill adversely affected the health of local communities.

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Tags : peru
JP Carroll