It was a God-thing,” said pastor Kevin Shearer of the events which led to the rescue of 11 members of Cash Point Baptist Church, Ardmore, Tenn., from an airport besieged by rioters in Peru.
The Tennesseans were stranded in the airport in Arequipa, Peru’s second-largest city, for 33 hours as rioters opposing the sale of two state electricity companies looted businesses, blocked roads and targeted the airport because of the large tourism industry of the city. Arequipa is located in the Andes Mountains.
Rioters hurled rocks on the runway and hundreds entered the airport just as stranded airline passengers were flown from the airport by military helicopters. Not all of the about 60 foreign passengers were evacuated, Shearer said. Martial law was declared in the region on the day the passengers were evacuated, June 16, according to the Associated Press. It will be in effect for 30 days, so little will be learned about the situation until that is past, Shearer said. Ninety-six people were injured in the rioting; one man was killed.
God helped the group throughout the ordeal, Shearer and other volunteers reported. They were part of a 19-member team from the church who served in the city of more than 1 million for a week.
On Sunday the team realized that authorities must not be not aware of their situation and that the rioting was getting worse because of the responses of airport officials. Shearer and his wife, Pam, speak fluent Spanish because they served as International Mission Board missionaries there for 12 years. They resigned and returned to the United States in 1999.
The American passengers were contacting the American Embassy in Lima, but rarely reaching a staff person and then not receiving responses.
Shearer also was in contact with team members who had flown from Arequipa to Lima before the airport was closed, and in contact with missionaries in Lima and with the church in Ardmore. Members of the church were asking U.S. government officials for help.
At the scene
At one point, the Tennesseans saw airport employees running from the airport carrying computers, and Shearer said an airport authority “vacillate[d] in his stories.”
Those stranded endured breathing tear gas. They covered their faces with dampened cloth items, Pam Shearer said. Thankfully, the tear gas dissipated in about 15 minutes.
The group went without food. Some members went without medication, including heart medication, for several days. They dealt with a lot of chaos, reported Randy Atchley of the team. About three times officials announced and prepared for evacuations that did not occur.
What finally instigated the evacuation, observers believe, was a chance encounter by missionary Mike Weaver with Ambassador John Hamilton on Sunday morning at an English-speaking church in Lima. Weaver, who was accompanied by other Cash Point members, identified Hamilton who was wearing an identification badge bearing his name and title.
Weaver met with Hamilton during the service, describing the situation in Arequipa. Hamilton told Weaver he had different information and would try to help.
Kevin Shearer explained it could be that other embassy employees knew of the situation in Arequipa and had not informed Hamilton, but it does not seem likely.
Several hours later, most foreign passengers were evacuated safely by the Peruvian military just before the airport was overrun. They learned about 800 rioters were just a wall away from the airport.
Seven volunteers flew home June 17, and the final 11 members of the team arrived home June 18. They originally were scheduled to arrive home June 22. (BP)
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