Tourists on Peru riverboat freed after pollution protest

By FRANKLIN BRICENO
Associated Press

LIMA, Peru (AP) — An Indigenous leader in Peru’s Amazon region says that his community has released 23 foreign tourists and 75 Peruvians who had been passengers on a riverboat detained overnight to demand government attention to complaints of oil pollution. Wadson Trujillo says the foreign passengers include citizens of Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France. They were been travelling along the Maranon River when the vessel named Eduardo 11 was halted by residents of Cuninico. Trujillo said the boat and passengers were allowed to leave in the early afternoon Friday. But he says similar protests will continue until the government responds to their protests over pollution.