FARC Commanders Indicted Over Kidnappings of Americans
By Andrew Cochran
The Justice Department today announced the first set of indictments over the kidnappings in February 2003 of the three Americans rescued by the Colombian Army on July 2. Hely Mejia Mendoza, known as “Martin Sombra,” was indicted in Washington, D.C. (Acrobat file) on seven counts of terrorism and weapons charges. Sombra was captured in February 2008, was one of the original founders of FARC, and is the most senior FARC member ever captured alive. Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were captured with two other Americans on February 13, 2003. FARC terrorists killed the other American captured that day, Thomas Janis, immediately; Martin Sombra served as “jailer” of the three American hostages for most of their first two years of captivity. From a DOJ press release: "He designed and supervised the construction of a large barbed-wire concentration camp in which he held the Americans and dozens of other hostages in the jungle. The Indictment charges that Sombra used chains and wires to bind the necks and wrists of the American hostages to prevent their escape, and forced the hostages on a grueling 40 day “death march” with heavy backpacks through dense jungle to outrun Colombian military forces. Sombra ordered his confederates to kill the Americans and the other hostages rather than allow them to be rescued by the Colombian police or military."
The Justice Department also unsealed an indictment in December 2003 (Acrobat file) of six other FARC senior commanders involved in the kidnapping and holding of the Americans. Two of the six are dead, including FARC Raul Reyes (see our archive of posts on him), and the FARC’s former “Supreme Leader,” Manuel Marulanda Velez, while the other four remain at large. The Rewards for Justice Program of the State Department is offering a $5 million dollar award for information leading to the apprehension or conviction of any FARC commanders involved in the hostage taking of Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes, and Marc Gonsalves, and the murder of American Thomas Janis.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/5427
