Post date: Apr 15, 2012 9:20:34 AM
CHUANQUIRI DISTRICT OF VILCABAMBA, CUZCO REGION, PERU (APRIL 14, 2012) (CH N) - Peru's Shining Path early on Saturday (April 14) released 36 gas pipeline workers it took hostage six days ago in a remote jungle region in southern Peru, the government said, saying security forces had clashed with the rebels.
Peru says all 36 hostages held by Shining Path are freed safely after security forces clash with Shining Path.
The Defence Ministry said the rebels let the workers go before dawn after they were circled by 1,500 security agents and tried to flee. Some of the captives said they walked through the jungle for hours after they were released.
Officials said the hostages were safe and in good health.
"Yes, happily safe and sound. They treated us well. I should say that. And happy because authorities received us well. The important thing is that we're all well and we thank everyone for their support," said one freed hostage.
"It has been a hard voyage, extremely hard, because, as you see, the majority of people has arrived exhausted by the walk. But the mistreatment that you think happened to us at the hands of our captors, didn't ," one of the hostages who identified himself as Fortunato told local television, which showed footage of some of the freed hostages in their orange work overalls.
Local radio said a police helicopter was transporting five corpses in the southern Cuzco region where the kidnapping occurred, but it was not clear whether they were civilians, police or rebels.
The rebels are holdouts from the Shining Path insurgency that entered Peru's thriving cocaine trade after their Maoist founders were imprisoned in the 1990s.
The Defence Ministry said operations would continue in the area in a bid to capture those responsible for the kidnap.
Swedish company Skanska <SKAb.ST>, which services a pipeline that carries gas from Peru's Camisea gas fields, had said this week that more than two dozen of its employees were detained. Peruvian company Ransa said nine of its workers were missing.
The Shining Path rebels, who are now too weak to threaten the government, had not carried out a large-scale kidnapping since 2003, when they captured 70 workers employed by Argentine company Techint building the Camisea pipeline.