By train, they arrived near the city of Piscacutso, in the district of Cusco (south), where a huge rock blocked the passage.
Some 200 tourists who had been stranded at the Machu Picchu archaeological site due to mass protests and riots in Peru for about ten days were finally able to leave on Saturday, the AFP found.
By train, they arrived near the city of Piscacutso, in the district of Cusco (south), where a huge rock blocked the passage.
From there the tourists, among them North Americans and Europeans, walked about two kilometers to board buses and be transported to the city of Cusco, where an international airport operates.
The mayor of a village near Machu Picchu, Darwin Vaca, had told AFP that “5,000 tourists” were stranded in the Cusco region.
At least 622 tourists, among them 525 foreigners, including about fifteen Frenchmen, are stranded at the famous archaeological site, according to a municipality count. The train, which had stopped running since Tuesday, is the only modern means of transport to the citadel from Cusco, once the capital of the Inca Empire, 110 kilometers away.
The army promised to send a helicopter on Saturday to carry out “four humanitarian flights to transport tourists” from Machu Picchu to Cusco, according to the municipality, which clarified that priority would be given to families with children and the most “vulnerable” people. .
The airport of Cusco, the tourist capital of the Andean country, reopened at midday on Friday, allowing tourists to depart, according to visuals distributed by the Peruvian Defense Ministry.
Peru has been rocked by riots — the death toll has reached at least 19 dead and 569 injured — sparked by the December 7 ouster and arrest of former president Pedro Castillo.
RES-EMP
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