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Heavily
Armed Kidnapping and Robbery
Lago Agrio, Ecuador, November 7, 2003.
Two groups of tourists and tourist guides have been kidnapped and robbed
by a heavily armed group of 5 bandits in the Cuyabeno National Reserve
(Sucumbios Region in Ecuador). All have been released after 2 ½ hours
without casualties.
We
would like to put out an alert for the security of jungle tours in the
Cuyabeno National Reserve in Northern Ecuador after our tour group was
hijacked by armed men last week and everything we had was stolen.
On
Friday 7 Nov, we were retuning to El Peunte (the Cuyabeno NP entrance)
by canoe from our camp near the Cuyabeno Lagoon where we had stayed for
the previous 4 Days. We left the camp at approx 6.30 am in a motorised
canoe with 6 tourists (4 German, 1 South African and 1 Australian) our
Ecuadorian driver and the canoe motorman. The excursion was organized
and subcontracted through Quito-based tour operator Green Planet to
their company-owned Cuyabeno Camp at the Cuyabeno River close to the
Cuyabeno Grand Laguna. For us Germans the excursion was part of an
organized 3 week Ecuador tour booked through travel company Aventoura of
Freiburg, Germany. The excursion started on Nov 3 and ended on Nov 7,
2003.
About
an hour down the river, at a hairpin bend where we had slowed down, we
heard a couple of shots. Immediately after a stream of bullets hit the
water about 1 m in front of the boat. The boatman stopped the engine and
we saw masked men standing on the river bank motioning us to bring the
boat the the bank. There were 5 men in Balaclavas heavily armed with 2
Uzi machine guns, a rifle, pistols and revolvers. The Driver and boatman
were immediatley led away with guns to their head and we were left
onboard and guarded while all bags were removed from the boat and
emptied.
After a while we were also led off the boat one by one and searched for
anything of value before being forced to sit with heads down. Another
boat came along after about an hour and was also stopped, although
without any shots being fired. There was only 2 guides and a boatman
onbaord this. They were also forced to sit with us and all valueables
were removed (passports, tickets, visa cards and any ID were returned to
us.) Then gunmen asked the guide when the next boat was expect and who
would be on it etc...
Apparently another boat was expected at 10am so the gunmen were waiting
for that. While waiting for this other boat, our belongings were poured
onto the ground and sorted into categories. Only specific items were
them packed into some of the packs to be taken away. We were also
searched once again for jewelry and had to remove shoes and socks etc
for searching.
After the expected boat failed to appear, the gunmen disabled one boat,
spilled the gasoline completely to the river and left in the other with
all the stolen goods. By this time we had been under their guard for
approximately 2.5 hours. We were told to stop all traffic going up the
river for 1 hour and that the boat would be left further upriver.
Some
backpacks, all cameras and valuables, selective clothing (logo shirts,
Gore-Tex gear) and especially cosmetics were stolen. Food and drinks had
been consumed. Stolen goods included some uniquely marked goods and very
uncommon camera types, e.g. a black journalist Nikon D1X digital camera
(serial # 5106025) including lenses Nikon AF Zoom Nikkor ED 70-300
(serial # L413173) and Nikon AF-S Nikkor ED 17-35 (serial # L243818) and
black digital camera Canon Powershot S50 (serial # 6733253809) used for
a freelance magazine story about Ecuador. A complete list of stolen
goods has been provided to the German embassy to be forwarded to the
relevant police authorities.
The 5
gunmen were very well organised and disciplined with very little talk
between them and each maintaining his position and job throughout the
whole time. They were in civilian clothes and had clean boots as through
they had been dropped into position by boat, not walked through the
jungle. We estimate that they were all in mid 20's. Due to the general
proximity of Cuyabeno to Colombia, initial thoughts were that they may
have been Colombians. The tour guides who were held, however, could note
no accents and the way they knew the river and jungle seem to indicate
that they were local to the area.
Shortly after the kidnappers left several boats with locals and tourist
groups appeared coming from the Cuyabeno River. One of the boats brought
the robbed group to the bridge and Visitor
Center.
One of the other boats had started 20 minutes earlier from the place of
the robbery and had already alarmed the military. 2 military groups
arrived at approx. 11:30 am and started to an armed patrol on a boat. On
of the guides had reported to have seen the stolen boat empty just
several meanders away from the bridge close to the Visitor Centre.
When
we continued to the Park Entrance at El Puente the military had been
called and arrived shortly after. They listened to the story and headed
off by boat.
It took us a full day to get a police report - there appeared to be
little interest from the police. We have since heard from our tour
operator that they are now considering escourting tour groups with armed
guards into the jungle. Personally, we don´t see this as a solution as
this opens up the option of being caught in crossfire.
In the following the German embassy has been informed and asked to
forward lists of robbed goods and suspect descriptions to the relevant
authorities as well as to issue a public alert about the incident.
Further research showed that the German Foreign Ministry had released a
travel alert for Ecuador, specifically referencing the Sucumbios region,
which reaches to Cuyabeno at Oct 10, 2003 on their official travel alert
web side. This was just one week before the German group started their
trip to Ecuador and planning had been completed. We had not realized the
alert in time. Neither tour operators Aventoura, nor their local agent
(him specifically denying alerts) Siebert, nor their subcontractor
Greenplanet had mentioned any alerts or risks of visiting this region to
us.
If you
are considering going to Cuyabeno we strongly suggest that you
investigate the situation. This has not been publicised and is not yet
public knowledge. Only when they feel the economic effect of no tourism
in this area will they take this seriously.
A reward of US$ 500 will be paid to anybody providing information that
leads to the retrieval of major parts of the stolen valuables including
the journalist camera equipment.
Copyright notice:
This report has been compiled first hand in order to
alert as much as possible international tourists to avoid further
incidents. Feel free to publish or forward to whomever it may concern
without further notice to the authors. The report has been sent to 280+
e-mail addresses of tourist agencies, governmental institutions, travel
book publishers, tour operators, newspapers, travel magazines, hotels,
consumer web pages, international travel web pages, etc.
Any feedback or report of similar incidents is
welcome via email to
wweber2@lycos.de.
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