Some 60 young, mainly Israeli, travelers have been arrested at a Peruvian archaeological site for what local media are describing as a late-night drunken, drug-addled sex orgy, Channel 2's Mako website reported Tuesday.
A Peruvian TV station billed the event as "a night of Israeli debauchery." Stolen Inca artifacts, as well as marijuana and components for making cocaine, were confiscated from four makeshift huts where the travelers were living, in the Saksaywaman archaeological site outside the city of Cusco. The travelers left behind drug paraphernalia, spray paint cans and other garbage. The huts, found to have been built illegally, were destroyed.
Police were alerted by Peruvian volunteers at the site, who said they heard extremely loud music coming from the huts at about 1:30 A.M.
Saksaywaman is popular with Israelis making the post-army trek to South America. Yet the demobilized soldiers are not always popular with South Americans, and this latest scandal is likely to tarnish their name even further. Two months ago, four Israeli ex-soldiers were arrested for starting a bonfire in a Chilean national park; two years ago, another one, Rotem Singer, accidentally started a massive forest fire in the country after burning toilet paper.
But unlike previous Israeli trekkers who've gotten into trouble on the continent, the dozens just arrested in Peru will not benefit from the intervention of Israeli consular officials: They're on strike with the rest of the Foreign Ministry's employees.
