Three US military contractors held hostage by leftist rebels in Colombia could be killed if government troops try to rescue them, an escaped hostage who spent time in captivity with the Americans said.
In his first interview since fleeing from eight years of rebel captivity, Jhon Frank Pinchao told Colombian state television a rescue bid would likely end in a bloodbath, apparently undermining President Alvaro Uribe's order to intensify military efforts to free the hostages.
"We knew that a rescue operation would in practice mean the death of the hostages," the Colombian police officer said Friday. "But if it was my fate to die in a rescue, at least I could hold onto the hope that my family would have the certainty of a cadaver -- the peace of being able to bury me -- and not the uncertainty of an indefinite kidnapping."
PHOTO: EPA
In the 40-minute interview, Pinchao said the three Americans -- Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes and Keith Stansell -- arrived 10 months ago at the camp where he, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and eight more hostages were being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The three Northrop Grumman Corp contractors were on a drug surveillance mission in Colombia's cocaine-producing southern jungle when their plane crashed on Feb. 13, 2003.
Pinchao said the Americans spent most of their days trading English for Spanish classes with their fellow hostages.
"Tom was teaching me English but unfortunately my notebook and pen ran out and so I couldn't continue," said Pinchao, adding that Gonsalves asked guerrilla commanders to obtain more supplies.
Keith, he said, would verbally walk him through the engineering design of an airplane.
In turn, Pinchao and the nine other Colombian hostages would try to forget their plight by teaching Colombian slang to the "friendly" gringo prisoners.
"We taught them how to bargain so they could obtain discounts in Bogota," said Pinchao with a rare smile in an otherwise painful interview in which he recounted his long captivity and perilous escape.
Pinchao was found on Wednesday by an anti-narcotic police patrol after trekking and swimming to freedom for 17 days in the jungle.
Uribe, hearing Pinchao describe how he was treated by rebels, said on Friday "the FARC's concentration camps are more cruel than those of the Nazis" and renewed calls to free the hostages.
"Generals, we're going to rescue Ingrid Betancourt," said a visibly angered Uribe at a military ceremony. Moments later he added: "And let there be no doubt in the US Congress that we're also going to militarily rescue the FARC's three American hostages."
But Pinchao and many relatives of the hostages fear a military rescue bid would lead to their deaths.
Pinchao said the mission of his captors was to keep their prisoners alive, but "if there was no more possibility of doing so, then they weren't allowed to let [government] troops to take us out either."
Pinchao said Gonsalves was suffering from hepatitis at the time of his escape and many of the prisoners were struggling to stave off malnutrition as a result of a spartan diet of rice and beans.
Pinchao, who had a son born while in captivity, methodically plotted his escape for months, quietly storing away rice for a month in preparation for an eventual escape attempt.
His opportunity came during a torrential storm, when he took advantage of a security lapse to remove the chain around his neck and flee into the jungle. Using the sun as his guide, he walked and swam fearing that he was being hunted down by his captors and predatory animals.
Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen who has become a cause celebre in France, was punished for trying to escape by having a metal chain tied around her neck, sometimes for days and months at a time.
She too previously suffered hepatitis, but in recent times had recovered and exercised daily, hostage family members who met privately with Pinchao said earlier.
"She's strong and has a lot of courage that made the guerrillas respect her ... but they took reprisals," Pinchao said, adding that he never saw the Americans similarly chained because they had never tried to escape.
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