“There are 5,000 tourists stranded in the city of Cusco, they are in their hotels waiting for the flights to be reactivated,” Darwin Baca, mayor of the neighboring district of Machu Picchu, who also finds himself in Cusco without being able to travel.
The Alejandro Velasco Astete international airport in Cusco has been closed since Monday after an attempted takeover by protesters. It is the third largest air terminal in the country.
AMLO endorses Pedro Castillo, the ousted president of Peru
However, this Friday, the Ministry of Defense announced its reopening. Passengers who need to move during curfew hours will be able to use their tickets as a safe-conduct.
“We are waiting for them to put us on a humanitarian flight so we can get to Lima and go to Argentina to see my wife’s family,” a Spanish tourist told local channel N.
Official images show travelers boarding an aircraft, under military guard.
Meanwhile, from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, some 200 tourists, mainly North Americans and Europeans, walked along the railway to the town of Ollantaytambo, some 30 km away, in order to make a connection to Cusco.
The tourist train, whose service is suspended, travels along this route. The municipality of Machu Pichu announced that tomorrow there will be an evacuation operation from the tourist area with four helicopters.
⚠️ Mexican community in Aguascalientes / Machu Picchu 🇵🇪
Tomorrow 12/17 there will be an air evacuation operation for tourists.
Please follow the registration instructions 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/wghNgjx2jg
— Mexico in Peru 🇲🇽🇵🇪 (@EmbaMexPeru)
December 16, 2022
Sonia Vigil, a Norwegian tourist, said Thursday that she arrived in Peru four days ago and “everything went crazy.” “There is garbage in the streets and people protesting and horns everywhere. I’m not really sure what’s going on, they don’t really tell us much and it’s all in Spanish and it’s hard for me to understand it,” she told Reuters.
