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Letter to the editor

Tapes show hostages still alive in Colombia

Three are Americans captured by rebels in 2003.

By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published December 1, 2007

The families of three Americans and a presidential candidate held hostage in Colombia have received the first visible evidence in more than four years that their relatives are still alive.

Videotapes seized from captured Colombian guerrillas show all four looking thinner and older in an undisclosed jungle setting.

The three Americans - Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell - were captured by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, after their plane crashed in southern Colombia in February 2003 while on a drug surveillance mission. The presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, was captured by the FARC in 2002 while campaigning in southern Colombia.

The rebels have not released images of the hostages since the summer of 2003.

In the silent images each American briefly stood alone against a jungle backdrop, looking physically strong but haggard.

"He's lost a lot of weight. His cheeks are sunken," said Stansell's father Gene Stansell, who lives in Bradenton with his wife, Lynne.

A gaunt Betancourt sits on a wooden chair staring blankly at the jungle floor without lifting her head to the camera. No images of her have been seen since 2002.

Colombia's government said the tapes were seized after the arrest Wednesday night of three suspected rebel members. Officials said a series of letters apparently written by the hostages was also recovered, some dated within the last five weeks.

The FARC is offering to release the hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of rebels from Colombian and U.S. prisons.

A mediation effort by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez collapsed last weekend after the rebels failed to provide proof their captives were still alive.

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 01:23:24]