Peru says 60 pipeline workers kidnapped

Reuters | June 10, 2003 | Tania Mellado

[HAL9000]

LIMA, Peru, June 9 (Reuters) - Armed raiders on Monday kidnapped about 60 workers employed by an Argentine company to help build a natural gas pipeline in southeastern Peru, a government statement said.

"They are asking for $1 million, high-tech communications equipment and explosives," said a police officer in Ayacucho, some 360 miles (600 km) southeast of Lima.

The officer, who asked not to be identified, called the attackers "presumed terrorists" but a government statement described them as armed criminals.

The statement said about 60 kidnappers struck at the Toccate construction camp in La Mar province, seizing a similar number of employees of Argentina's Techint Group.

"The armed forces have been deployed," it said. "The government has taken the necessary measures to free the kidnapped people, preserving their physical integrity and their life."

The attackers in Monday's raid, armed with Russian-made machine guns and some wearing masks, took their hostages just a mile (2 km) away from the camp where they began negotiations with Techint officials, the police officer said.

Later, another police officer, quoting an internal police document, said "there are still some 20 presumed terrorists in the Toccate camp, under the command of Comrade Mio who said they would begin to kill the hostages if they noted the presence of members of the police or military."

The commander was not further identified.

Techint, building the 430-mile (720-km) pipeline from the Camisea natural gas fields to the Pacific coast, was the target of an attack by disgruntled workers last August. The workers stormed another construction camp and wounded 10 people.

Some 100 troops and police flew to the area by helicopter, he said.

The company, in a brief statement from Buenos Aires, blamed "suspected armed guerrilla groups."

The police officer said four Colombians, two Argentines, a Chilean and three policemen were among those kidnapped. The government statement put the number of foreigners at eight.

Other police and army officials also described the attackers as "terrorists," a term usually used to refer to leftist Shining Path guerrillas who waged a bloody war against the state in the 1980s and 1990s.

Shining Path has been largely defeated but some guerrillas are still active in parts of the Amazon jungle and in Ayacucho department where the attack took place.

Camisea is one of Peru's biggest energy projects in decades, with investment estimated at around $2 billion. It is controversial, however, because environmental groups say it will damage the pristine Amazon jungle.

The Inter-American Development Bank is currently evaluating whether to grant a $75 million loan for the project.

[marron]

Pipeline construction in third world countries: not for the faint of heart. You put up 3 billion dollars, face obstruction from Euro NGOs and enviro groups, guerrilla attacks, national governments which can change the rules on the fly.

Shell and Mobil spent $250 million of their own money to do front end engineering; the Peruvians failed to come through on promised legislation necessary to make the economics work, and the two majors walked away and lost their investment. Peru repackaged the project, and sold it again to new, lesser known investors, and the project is now underway.

The new investors have bought, for their money, the right to push a pipeline through some of the roughest terrain on earth, and to do it in the face of guerrilla attacks just adds icing to the cake.

People who think the energy business is a money machine really have no clue at all. But when you look at the kinds of things your average oil exec deals with every day before his coffee is cold, you can understand why our most effective diplomats and managers in the current administration came out of the oil industry.

[yonif]

"They are asking for $1 million, high-tech communications equipment and explosives"

They are asking for explosives? Do they actually believe they will get that?

[BagCamAddict]

They are asking for explosives? Do they actually believe they will get that?

Let 'em have it. Literally. Give them the explosives, which are tagged with GPS locators, and a remote detonation capability. Once they let the hostages go, either drop a little napalm on their location, or detonate the explosives. You ask, we deliver!