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 U.S. 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 in an interview with The Associated Press of the three, Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell. They are the first U.S. 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. Full Story
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