Release does not work when maven 2 executable is not on PATH

[INFO] Updating local copy against the scm...
[INFO] Verifying that there are no local modifications...
[INFO] Checking dependencies and plugins for snapshots ...
[INFO] Transforming 'aarh-bridge_visao'...
[INFO] Not generating release POMs
[ERROR] org.apache.maven.shared.release.ReleaseExecutionException: Maven execution failed, exit code: '127'
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.phase.AbstractRunGoalsPhase.execute(AbstractRunGoalsPhase.java:66)
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.phase.RunPrepareGoalsPhase.execute(RunPrepareGoalsPhase.java:42)
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.DefaultReleaseManager.prepare(DefaultReleaseManager.java:194)
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.DefaultReleaseManager.prepareWithResult(DefaultReleaseManager.java:107)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.release.executors.PrepareReleaseTaskExecutor.execute(PrepareReleaseTaskExecutor.java:43)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.release.executors.AbstractReleaseTaskExecutor.executeTask(AbstractReleaseTaskExecutor.java:67)
at org.codehaus.plexus.taskqueue.execution.ThreadedTaskQueueExecutor$ExecutorRunnable$1.run(ThreadedTaskQueueExecutor.java:116)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:442)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:176)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:665)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:690)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.shared.release.exec.MavenExecutorException: Maven execution failed, exit code: '127'
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.exec.ForkedMavenExecutor.executeGoals(ForkedMavenExecutor.java:103)
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.exec.ForkedMavenExecutor.executeGoals(ForkedMavenExecutor.java:121)
at org.apache.maven.shared.release.phase.AbstractRunGoalsPhase.execute(AbstractRunGoalsPhase.java:59)
... 11 more