BRUSSELS—Four Belgian tourists being held by peasant farmers in the Guatemalan jungle have been released, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
"They were freed following negotiations with the authorities, in other words peacefully," a ministry spokesman said in Brussels. He said he had no details as yet on the state of their health.
The two couples were seized along with two Guatemalan guides on Friday as they travelled up a river near the Caribbean coast by farmers angry over the arrest of a local Mayan leader.
The Belgian ministry spokesman said he understood three members of an indigenous farmers' group who were being detained by local authorities had been freed as part of the negotiations, but not the leader.
The six captives were thought to have been hidden in dense jungle near the town of Rio Dulce, named after the remote, emerald green river they were travelling up by motor boat when they were abducted by machete-wielding farmers.
The Belgians range in age from 59 to 74, and Ordonez said they were concerned about one of them who had heart problems.
The same group of farmers briefly held 29 policemen hostage in February demanding the release of Ramiro Choc, a community leader whose supporters say is fighting for land rights.
Close to half of Guatemala's population are indigenous peasants, many of them landless, who often occupy land to carry out subsistence farming.
The ministry spokesman said the Belgian tourists were being taken back to Guatemala City and were expected to travel back to Belgium on Monday if they wanted to.
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