Members of an indigenous community in Peru have released at least eight government officials who were hostage taken over the weekend to draw attention to back-to-back oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon.  The spills have left rivers - and the villages that depend on them - in bad shape. 

On Sunday, the Wampis people of the Rio Mayuriaga seized a military helicopter carrying three officials from the state-run oil company Petroperu, four with the country's environmental agency (OEFA), a specialist with the energy and mines ministry, and the flight crew.  The government is moving forward on their demands to be included in the emergency response plan to the spills, after initially overlooking the Wampis.

On 25 January, a 40-year old pipeline spilled 2,000 barrels of crude oil in the Chirico and Maranon rivers near eight other indigenous communities.  A couple of weeks later, the same decades-old pipeline sprung a leak on the Rio Mayuriaga in the same Amazonian region, spilling 1,000 barrels.  The crude oil has traveled thousands of miles since the first spill took place on January 25, covering the river banks and contaminating the water the local communities drink, while generating a public health emergency and threatening their food security.

The OEFA has already fined Petroperu US$3.6 Million over the spills and the penalties could go up to US$15 Million.

This isn't the first time indigenous peoples in Peru resorted to hostage-taking to be heard.  Last September, 40 tourists were detained in Madre de Dios to demand the construction of a road in the Manu National Park.