MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2020) Six people taken hostage by an Amazon tribe in Ecuador have been released after the government satisfied the demand that the body of the tribe leader, killed by the coronavirus, be returned to the group, Ecuadorian National Police said on Sunday.
In the beginning of the week, the Shuar indigenous community in the village of Kumay kidnapped two police officers and four officials to demand that the body of their leader, who was buried with all standard sanitary protocols for COVID-19 victims, be exhumed and returned to them.
"The National Police of Ecuador is informing you that on Saturday evening, on July 4, two policemen and four officials, who had been presumably kidnapped by the Kumay community in [the eastern province of] Pastaza, were released," police said.
According to the statement, the Ecuadorian government agreed to retrieve the body and return it to the tribe this past Friday.
The released hostages will now be examined by health workers, police said.
Ecuador has by this point reported 61,535 coronavirus cases, including 4,769 related fatalities.
