Guarded by hundreds of armed rebels deep in a malaria-infested jungle, three American captives pass the time playing with a homemade deck of cards and dreaming of their families. The threat of death always hangs nearby.
The three US military contractors have been cut off from the outside world since their capture by rebels seven months ago. That isolation was broken when a Colombian journalist traveled for days over rough roads and jungle rivers with a rebel escort to interview them July 25 in remote southern Colombia.
"They were nervous, and there were traces of fear on their faces," freelance reporter Jorge Enrique Botero said of the three, Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell.
They are the first US military contractors to be captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Colombia's 39-year guerrilla war. Washington has long been providing military aid to halt cocaine production controlled by the rebels and their paramilitary foes, and recently began training and providing intelligence for counterinsurgency operations.
Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves were reportedly working for Pentagon contractor California Microwave Systems when their single-engine plane crash-landed in FARC-controlled territory on Feb. 13. The rebels allegedly executed a fourth American, Tom Janis, and a Colombian soldier, Sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz, who also were aboard.
The three Americans -- considered prisoners of war by the FARC -- slept in a 5.5m by 5.5m wooden hut in beds fashioned from branches, Botero said on Thursday.
"There is always a guard five yards away from them," he said. "Any rescue attempt will end with their deaths."
Howes and Gonsalves fought boredom by playing cards made from notebook paper and said they longed for a radio. Having one "would be medicine for the soul," Howes said.
Botero said Howes, who at 50 is the eldest of the captives and has a young son with his Peruvian wife, spent a lot of time reflecting on his priorities.
"He is redesigning his list of values," Botero said. "He says the real treasure is the family."
A rebel commander told the Americans their only hope for freedom would be an exchange of hostages held by the rebels for imprisoned guerrillas. If President Alvaro Uribe rejects an exchange, the Americans face years in captivity, said the commander, who goes by the nom de guerre Alfredo.
Colombian troops and US Special Forces have found no trace of the Americans in seven months of searching.
If they are ever located, US officials say Colombian soldiers would carry out any rescue attempt. Washington is reluctant to further broaden US military involvement in Colombia.
Botero said the three made clear they want to be freed through a prisoner exchange and not a rescue. "I asked them, what do you think of the word `rescue?' And the three said, `Death. Death. Death,'" he recalled. "The three reject that path."
The US Embassy issued a statement on Friday saying the US seeks "to obtain the safe release of the American hostages without making concessions to the terrorists holding them."
Botero said the Americans recounted their capture after the engine of their US government Cessna cut out at 4,200m and crash-landed in a clearing in southern Caqueta state.
According to Botero, the Americans told him the pilots, Howes and Janis, were knocked unconscious in the crash. Stansell -- who had two broken ribs -- Gonsalves and Cruz crawled out and tried to pull the pilots from the plane, afraid it might explode. They then saw rebels closing in.
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