(IPYS/IFEX) – On 10 May 2005, journalist Luis Peña Vergaray and his translator, Eduardo Arrobo Samaniego, were released without any armed intervention after being held hostage for five days by the Aguaruna indigenous group in the region of Pampa Entsa, province of Condorcanqui, Amazonas region, in the country’s northeast. This occurred after a commission of […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 10 May 2005, journalist Luis Peña Vergaray and his translator, Eduardo Arrobo Samaniego, were released without any armed intervention after being held hostage for five days by the Aguaruna indigenous group in the region of Pampa Entsa, province of Condorcanqui, Amazonas region, in the country’s northeast. This occurred after a commission of representatives from the government, indigenous organisations and the Church reached the area and began talks with the indigenous group.
Minister of the Interior Felix Murazzo reported that the freed men were in good health and were moved to the city of Jaén, Cajamarca, to be checked by a medical team before seeing their families. They would then be driven to Lima.
The Aguarunas took Peña and Arrobo hostage on 6 May, refusing to allow them to leave the community before a government commission came to the area to see the group’s miserable living conditions.
One of the key reasons the hostages were released was that the indigenous group wanted nothing more to do with the National Police.
Peña went to the area to investigate the 21 April murder of four Health Ministry community outreach workers, apparently at the hands of local inhabitants.
