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Environmentalists Who Literally Trampled World History May Face Legal Action

December 15, 2014

The Greenpeace activists that recently trampled the ancient Nazca lines are now facing legal action from the government of Peru. Officials are now trying to prevent those activists from leaving the country so they can be charged, according to The Guardian.

Peru will seek criminal charges against Greenpeace activists who it says damaged the world-renowned Nazca lines by leaving footprints in the adjacent desert during a publicity stunt.

"It’s a true slap in the face at everything Peruvians consider sacred," said Luis Jaime Castillo, the deputy culture minister, after the action by the environmental group on Monday, at the famed drawings etched into Peru’s coastal desert, a UN world heritage site.

However, a court has rebuffed initial government efforts to detain the activists and many of them have already fled the country. President Ollanta Humala was unhappy about the court's move and says he will continue to pursue the environmentalists that damaged the national treasure, Bloomberg reported.

Peru President Ollanta Humala said he regrets that a local court rejected his government’s effort to detain Greenpeace activists suspected of damaging pre-Hispanic desert drawings during an environmental protest.

Many of the activists left the country after causing "irreparable" damage to the archaeological site known as the Nazca lines, Humala said in a statement on the presidential website Sunday.

Humala warned the rest of the world to be on look out for Greenpeace's destructive tactics.

"We must simply spread the word, alert the world," Humala said. "Watch out at the Taj Mahal, watch out at the pyramids in Egypt, because we all face the threat that Greenpeace could attack any of humanity’s historical heritage."