(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-16 15:11

LAGUNILLA EL SALVADOR, Guatemala -- Four Belgian tourists taken hostage by protesting farmers were released late Saturday as security forces in boats and helicopters closed in on them in Guatemala's eastern jungle, an official said.

The Belgians - two men and two women - their Guatemalan guide, and a boat operator were taken hostage Friday in a tourist destination 155 miles northeast of Guatemala City by farmers demanding legal titles to their land and the release of their jailed leader.

A girl stands near the place where four Belgians tourist were taken hostage in Rio Dulce, Guatemala, Saturday, March 15, 2008. Authorities were negotiating for the release of four Belgians, their Guatemalan guide and a boat operator who were taken hostage Friday by farmers demanding freedom for their imprisoned leader. [Agencies]

Authorities had been negotiating with the kidnappers, while at the same time 150 police officers in boats and soldiers in helicopters searched the area for the hostages to mount a rescue mission if talks failed, officials said.

Late Saturday, Ronaldo Robles, the communications secretary of Guatemala's presidency, said the Belgians were free. "We can confirm that the Belgian citizens in the hands of the farmers have been freed," Robles told The Associated Press by telephone.

The farmers are demanding the legalization of their land claims and freedom for their leader, who was jailed earlier in connection with land occupations.

Xol said the kidnappers sailed along the river to throw police off their track and then took the captives late Friday to a town, whose name and location he declined to reveal.

"A representative of the government communicated with us and we're looking for dialogue to free the Belgian citizens," Xol said.

Tourist Eric Stosstris told the AP on Saturday, also by cell phone, that the captives had not been hurt and the abductors were giving them food.

"We are being kept in wooden huts and we hope to be released soon," Stosstris said.

The travelers were touring caves in the region when they were accosted by two men armed with machetes, according to Stosstris, 62.

"When we returned to the boat, two people that we didn't know ... came on board and suddenly we had 15 people on the boat," he said in a separate interview Friday.

Stosstris identified the other Belgian captives as his wife Jenny Stosstris, 59, and their friends Gabriel and Mary Paul Van Huysse, ages 64 and 62, all from Ghent.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Delhaye said the Belgian government was "in touch with the local authorities, who have started negotiating with the kidnappers."