Armed rebels holding Japan's ambassador and 73 others set free the diplomat's beloved dog Emma, who was gaunt after two weeks without food.
By hanging onto their hostage heavyweights - the brother of President Alberto Fujimori among them - the guerrillas appeared intent on retaining bargaining power as Peru's crisis entered its 18th day.Five Supreme Court judges, eight generals, five congressmen, two foreign ambassadors and Pedro Fujimori, a younger brother of the president, remained in the residence.
Scruffy and bone-thin, the German shepherd Emma looked weary as a Red Cross worker led her on a leash from the ambassador's residence, where she had been unfed for most of the crisis.
"Imagine. She has only eaten once," fire Cmdr. Otakar Lukac said as the dog, one of two owned by Japanese Ambassador Morihisa Aoki, was fed sweet Christmas bread and rice before being taken away to an animal clinic.
The other dog, Emma's grown offspring named Oso, died Dec. 26 after stepping on a land mine planted by the rebels in the compound, Lukac said. His account explained the mysterious early morning explosion that caused initial speculation of hostage or rebel casualties.
A lazy summer day belied the tension within the residence Thursday as mothers pushed strollers past cordons of heavily armed police and boys on inline skates stopped to gawk down the emptied embassy row.
Hundreds of yards away, and out of sights of passers-by, Tupac Amaru guerrillas brandishing AK-47 rifles and grenades held their hostages behind 10-foot walls, the group of captives sharply reduced from its original 500.
In their 11th hostage release since the Dec. 17 takeover during a posh party, the guerrillas freed seven men on Wednesday.