American interest lags for hostages

The United States stays quiet as France pushes Colombia.

By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published December 24, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Marc Gonsalves, 35, is shown at an unknown location in a November video released by the Colombia's Presidency, showing the three American hostages. [AP photo] Thomas Howes, 54, along with the other two defense contractors have been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since February 2003. [AP photo] The family of Keith Stansell, 43, appeared on CNN to speak out with their frustrations on the slow movement of recovering the hostages. "We were told don't talk to the media, publicity is bad, it would jeopardize our son's life," said Lynne Stansell, Keith's stepmother. "But after three years, we decided the heck with it. It might have been a valid argument if they were doing something diplomatically, but they weren't."

MIAMI - The fate of three American hostages deep in the Colombian jungle has captivated public attention around the globe - yet not in their own country.

Defense contractors Keith Stansell, 43, Marc Gonsalves, 35, and Thomas Howes, 54 - all with family in Florida - have been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since February 2003.

Efforts to win their release, and that of more than 40 other captives, are followed closely in Europe, where a solidarity campaign of hundreds of volunteers is focused on Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who is also a French citizen. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made Betancourt's release a national priority.

"Ingrid is huge phenomenon in France," said Michael Shifter, a Colombia expert at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "For them, she's almost a hero."

Yet the cause barely registers in this country.

The families say that's partly because of advice they received early on from the FBI and the State Department.

"We were told don't talk to the media, publicity is bad, it would jeopardize our son's life," said Lynne Stansell, Keith's stepmother, who lives in Bradenton. "But after three years, we decided the heck with it. It might have been a valid argument if they were doing something diplomatically, but they weren't."

U.S. officials won't discuss the case, considering it too sensitive.

The low profile of the hostages' plight is also due in part to the controversial jobs the three Americans had in Colombia: aerial surveillance of the eradication of drug crops.

"They were private contractors, not soldiers in uniform. But they were fighting the drug war, so there's much less sympathy for them," Shifter said. The three were captured after their small plane suffered engine trouble and crashed in rebel territory.

Lately the families have been speaking out more. The Stansells appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. The three Americans were also featured in Men's Vogue magazine last month. But media coverage has otherwise been spotty, the families say.

"There's never any followup," Stansell said.

Relatives complain that the Bush administration has not done enough. Unlike Sarkozy, Bush has made no public appeal for the Americans' release.

The U.S. government says it will not negotiate with the FARC, which it considers a terrorist organization, and thus refuses to consider trading three FARC members held in the United States, one convicted for his role in seizing the Americans.

Declaring U.S. interest in the fate of the hostages only increases their value as captives, analysts point out. But there is plenty of precedent for discreet U.S. official contacts with outlawed groups, most recently in Iraq, they add.

A military rescue attempt is considered unlikely. Reports from FARC deserters and former hostages say the hostages are held in jungle camps guarded by guerrillas in five concentric rings.

"How do you get the stealth to get past those rings?" said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

Washington's interest appeared to pick up recently after President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela offered to mediate on behalf of the families. Despite Chavez's hostility to the Bush administration, officials publicly welcomed his initiative. Chavez invited the families of the Americans to the presidential palace in Caracas.

But Chavez's mediation effort ended abruptly Nov. 21, when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, angered that Chavez had violated a negotiating protocol, told him his efforts were no longer welcome.

A few days later, Colombian authorities arrested three suspected guerrillas carrying a "proof of life" video of the hostages, as well as several letters.

The video showed a haggard Betancourt staring blankly at the ground. It was the first anyone had seen of her in five years. In a 12-page handwritten letter to her mother, dated Oct. 24, she described her deteriorating health and loss of hope.

"Here, we are living like the dead," she wrote. "Life is not life here, but ... a gloomy waste of time."

The video also included shots of the three Americans, who look to be in better physical shape.

The capture of the tapes has ratcheted up pressure on all sides to intensify their efforts.

Sarkozy made a TV appeal directly to the FARC leader, Manuel "Sure Shot" Marulanda: "I do not share your ideas and I condemn your methods." But "you must save a woman in danger of death. ... You can show the world that the FARC understands humanitarian imperatives."

Sarkozy said his dream was to see Betancourt freed before her 46th birthday Tuesday, Christmas Day.

Sarkozy later spoke by phone with Bush, though the White House has not released details of the conversation. He also phoned Uribe, urging him to pursue a hostage swap.

Uribe has since agreed to a face-to-face meeting between Colombian government officials and the rebels to facilitate an exchange of rebel prisoners for the hostages. But he insisted the rebel participants come unarmed, a condition they are thought unlikely to accept.

The FARC announced last week that it would release three of the hostages, including an aide to Betancourtwho was kidnapped with her and the aide's 3-year-old son, born in captivity.

Interest in the United States may finally be stirring. Last month Florida Sen. Bill Nelson submitted Resolution 53 condemning the hostage-taking and expressing "sympathy to the relatives who have been unsure of the fates of their family members for more than four years."

While grateful, Lynne Stansell wants a lot more done. "The resolution says 'we condemn, we condemn, we condemn,' but I wonder what good that does."

David Adams can be reached at dadams@sptimes.com.

The Colombian government released photos Nov. 30 of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Among them are U.S. defense contractors Keith Stansell, 43, Marc Gonsalves, 35, and Thomas Howes, 54, and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who is also a French citizen. The U.S. defense contractors have family in Florida and have been held since 2003.

[Last modified December 23, 2007, 21:55:43]