The Peruvian authorities are not kidding. Five of the six foreign tourists arrested Sunday in Peru, for having damaged the Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu, will be expelled from the country, while the sixth is prosecuted for “extraction of cultural property” on the famous Inca archaeological site, announced Tuesday the police.
These tourists, four men and two women, aged between 20 and 32, from Brazil, Argentina, France and Chile, were arrested on Sunday by guards and police, in the Temple of the Sun, which once served to honor the most important Inca deity.
One of them, a 28-year-old Argentinian, will be brought to justice on Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in the locality of Machu Picchu (south). He is suspected of having wanted to remove a stone from the Temple of the Sun, which ultimately fell and damaged the ground of the building, according to the police, who indicated that the young man had admitted the facts.
A World Heritage Site
The other five tourists were taken to the provincial capital of Cusco, "to the State Security Unit, where they are being interrogated over a migration issue," said a spokesman for the local police. "They are still detained and should be expelled from the country."
Peruvian law provides for sentences of at least four years in prison for anyone who damages the national cultural heritage. According to the authorities, the six tourists entered the site on Saturday and went into hiding to spend the night there, which is strictly prohibited. They are suspected of having defiled the place, because faeces were discovered there.
The site of Machu Picchu, an Inca citadel, sits on the top of a mountain of 2,400 meters above sea level, about 80 kilometers northwest of the city of Cusco. It is registered since 1983 in the heritage of humanity established by Unesco. Certain parts of the Temple of the Sun are forbidden access due to the state of conservation of the building.
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