LIMA, Peru (AP) — A United States Embassy warning to American tourists about a potential kidnapping threat in the Cuzco region of Peru, which includes the Incan citadel Machu Picchu, drew vehement objections from Peruvian officials on Friday.
But a United States Embassy official said credible evidence existed of a threat from a Peruvian terrorist group.
The official confirmed a report in La República, a Peruvian newspaper, that said that leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla group had discussed kidnapping foreigners, particularly Americans, in intercepted communications. Tens of thousands of Americans visit Peru each year.
The official agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name because of the political delicacy of the warning.
La República said its sources about the interceptions included members of Peru’s military high command, but the country’s military chief, Adm. José Cueto, said that he had no such information.
“Perhaps it is information that they alone have and have not shared,” Admiral Cueto said of the United States government.
The embassy warning that mentioned Peru’s biggest tourist draw was posted on the embassy’s Facebook page on Thursday. Dated Feb. 13, it was also posted on the embassy’s Web site.
It says a “criminal organization may be planning to kidnap U.S. citizen tourists in the Cuzco and Machu Picchu area.” The warning also says United States Embassy personnel are barred from visiting Machu Picchu and the Cuzco region unless on official business, which is restricted.
“It’s very rare that it would be so pointed to us,” the American official said of the threat.
The mayor of the city of Cuzco, Luis Florez, urged the American ambassador, Rose M. Likins, to retract the warning.
“Tourism is an incredibly sensitive topic, and they would be damaging a big source of earnings at the national level,” Mr. Florez told reporters after a group of mayors met with President Ollanta Humala.
But Ms. Likins said the United States government was obliged by law to inform its citizens of any information regarding their security. “In this case, we received information that we consider reliable,” she told RPP radio.
The Maoist-inspired Shining Path group had been severely disrupted by the time the State Department designated it a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Its remnants number about 500 and have become an increasingly potent and disciplined fighting force, financing themselves by taxing drug traffickers in Peru’s coca-growing heartland.
Shining Path’s radius of action has in recent years expanded to include the northern jungle province of Convención in Cuzco, where, La República said, the conversations were intercepted and where the Camisea natural gas project is located.
In that region, a rugged 100 miles north of Machu Picchu, Shining Path fighters last April kidnapped and briefly detained 36 construction workers near a Camisea site. All were released unharmed, but the rebels killed eight soldiers and police officers sent to rescue them. The group has killed more than 80 Peruvian soldiers since 2008.
Peru Objects to U.S. Embassy’s Warning to Tourists
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Peru Objects to U.S. Embassy’s Warning to Tourists
