Lagunilla el Salvador (Guatemala): Four Belgian tourists taken hostage by protesting farmers were released as security forces in boats and helicopters closed in on them in Guatemala's eastern jungle, officials have said.
The Belgians - two men and two women - their Guatemalan guide and a boat operator were taken hostage on Friday in a tourist destination 250 km northeast of Guatemala City by farmers demanding legal titles to their land and the release of their jailed leader. Authorities had been negotiating with the kidnappers, while at the same time 150 police officers in boats and soldiers in helicopters searched the area for the hostages to mount a rescue mission if talks failed, officials said yesterday.
Ronaldo Robles, the communications secretary of Guatemala's presidency yesterday, said the Belgians were free. "We can confirm that the Belgian citizens in the hands of the farmers have been freed," Robles told reporters by telephone.
