LIMA - The hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's home in the Peruvian capital, where 72 men are being held, reached the two month mark yesterday making it the longest hostage siege in Latin America.
Despite three rounds of talks last week to set an agenda for negotiations between President Alberto Fujimori's government and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), there was still no end in sight to the 62 day standoff.
The MRTA takes the record for Latin American embassy sieges from Colombia's M-19 guerrillas. In 1980, 15 M-19 fighters captured the Dominican Embassy in Bogota and held 57 hostages for 61 days, before getting $2 million and a plane to Cuba.
Despite the length of the siege, a poll on Sunday showed most Peruvians still back Mr Fujimori's tough stance: 60 per cent approved of his tactics and 70 per cent said talks must go on.