Belgian hostages in Guatemala jungle for 2nd night
16 Mar 2008 00:04:59 GMT Source: Reuters
By Brendan Kolbay RIO DULCE, Guatemala, March 15 (Reuters) - Four Belgian tourists were set to spend a second night in the Guatemalan jungle as hostages of a mob of peasant farmers on Saturday, as authorities tried to secure their release. The two couples were seized along with two Guatemalan guides on Friday as they traveled up a river near the Caribbean coast by farmers angry over the arrest of a local Mayan leader. The farmers took them upriver and held them overnight. A leader of the indigenous farmers' group told Guatemalan radio on Saturday the six hostages would be held until President Alvaro Colom agreed to talk to them. A government spokesman said he believed the group was unharmed and that officials were negotiating with their captors by telephone while police and troops hunted for them on foot. "There are two groups of police and armed forces searching the area to try and find the hostages," said Ronaldo Robles, chief spokesman for the president's office. "We have recently made contact with them and we are in negotiations to liberate the hostages," he said. The six captives were believed to be hidden in dense jungle near the town of Rio Dulce, named after the remote, emerald green river they were traveling up when hundreds of farmers surrounded their small motor boat. The same group of farmers briefly held 29 policemen hostage in February demanding the release of Ramiro Choc, a community leader whose supporters say he is fighting for land rights. Close to half of Guatemala's population are indigenous peasants, many of them landless, who often occupy land to carry out subsistence farming. "We have the tourists in a safe place," farmers' leader Juana Caal told Guatemalan radio. "We will not let them go until there is a dialogue with the president or the vice president." The Belgian consulate said on Friday the Guatemalan navy was sending a ship up the river to look for the vacationers. One of the tourists told Guatemalan radio by cell phone on Friday they were not hurt, and one of the tour guides said their captors had taken them further up river. Land disputes were one of the catalysts for Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war between leftist guerrillas and the government, which left around 250,000 people dead or missing. Colom, who took office in January, has vowed to reduce poverty and violence. (Additional reporting by Herbert Hernandez in Guatemala City; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Eric Walsh)
A man dressed as Ernesto "Che" Guevara takes part in the "Huelga de Dolores" annual march in Guatemala City March 14, 2008. The march, in it's 110th year, is organized by ...
