Tupac Amaru Quit Hostage Negotiations

Marxist rebels who are holding 72 hostages at the Japanese ambassador’s house in Lima, Peru, said Thursday that they are abandoning negotiations to end the crisis, because they believed that the Peruvian police were digging a tunnel beneath the residence as a prelude to a military assault.

In a two-way radio conversation with local journalists, the leader of the Tupac Amaru guerrillas, Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, said that for the last three days, the rebels have heard loud noises coming from underneath the residence floor. “This all shows, without a doubt, that they are preparing a military action, with the tactic of invading from the inside and the outside,” he said.

The government and guerrillas were scheduled to hold their 10th round of talks today, but the members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement said they would not attend.