Bogotá, Colombia – A police officer who fled to freedom after eight years as a hostage of leftist rebels said Wednesday that he was held until late last month with a former presidential candidate and three American military contractors.
Jhon Frank Pinchao told reporters he last saw the three Americans – Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes and Keith Stansell – and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt on April 28, the day of his escape from a jungle camp.
Pinchao said Gonsalves was suffering from hepatitis, but he provided no other details about the Americans, Betancourt or the eight other politicians and police officers held with him at the time of his escape.
Pinchao said he fled his captors, guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, near the town of Mitu, where he had been taken hostage during a rebel attack. He said he had to walk, swim and crawl for 17 days through Colombia’s remote Amazon jungle before running into an anti-narcotics police patrol on Wednesday.
At a news conference with Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, Pinchao told reporters that he slept tied to another prisoner, with a thin metal chain tightened around his neck. He said he took advantage of a lapse by his captors to escape.
“I hope it’s not my fault that the others face difficulties now,” Pinchao said, breaking into tears.
The three Americans were captured in February 2003 by FARC when their plane went down during a surveillance mission in southern Colombia.
Betancourt, who campaigned against corruption, was kidnapped on Feb. 23, 2002.
Betancourt and the Americans are among some 60 political prisoners the FARC is using as political pawns to negotiate an exchange for the release of hundreds of jailed rebels.
