U.S. Raises Columbia Kidnap Reward to $5M

AP ^ | Dec. 04, 2003 | VANESSA ARRINGTON

[Tailgunner Joe]

The United States is offering $5 million for information leading to the arrest of the kidnappers of three American military contractors in Colombia, U.S. Ambassador William B. Wood said Thursday.

The embassy also launched a campaign in local newspapers, television and radio stations to encourage people who may know something about the abduction to step forward.

"Whoever has information, please get in touch with us," Wood told reporters in the heavily guarded embassy compound. Until Thursday, Washington had been offering $340,000 and the possibility of a U.S. visa for such information.

The three Americans, Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell, were captured by rebels of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when their single-engine plane crash-landed in guerrilla territory while on an anti-drug mission in February.

The Colombian military says it has pinpointed the area where the rebels are holding the contractors but won't launch a rescue raid for fear of endangering their lives.

The guerrillas allegedly executed a fourth American, Tom Janis, and a Colombian soldier, Sgt. Luis Alcides Cruz, who also were on the plane.

The FARC wants to exchange them for jailed rebels. The government of hard-line President Alvaro Uribe is opposed to making any such deal.

Wood also said Washington was still studying whether to give reward money to three people who helped guide Colombian troops to Edgar Gustavo Navarro, the No. 2 commander of an elite FARC unit blamed for the kidnapping.

Navarro was killed Oct. 19 during a gunfight with Special Forces soldiers in a remote municipality southwest of Bogota.

The FARC and a smaller leftist rebel army have been waging war on the Colombian government for nearly 40 years. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the fighting each year.